


Both my knees

by Pebr



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Literally just beating the turtles in every chapter, Torture, Violence, While they have to watch each other get hurt, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-04-29 03:44:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 55,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5114645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pebr/pseuds/Pebr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What is it with us and brutal battle arenas whenever we visit space?" Leo-centric, contains lots of hurt turtles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Whenever they got themselves into space, they always got themselves in trouble. That trouble usually involved a stolen spaceship, and that was the case this time as well.

How they had gotten themselves into this mess was a long story, but how they got from their own (stolen) ship into a prison on some strange planet was a shorter one. Their ship had apparently belonged to the enemies of the planet they had arrived to, and their explanations that they weren’t allies to their enemies were coldly rejected. They had been thrown into a prison, and apparently they were waiting for their turn to take part in some kind of ‘arena game.’ They had been in one before, so they couldn’t help but wonder what it was with them getting into weird space games.

In this prison, their hands weren’t tied nor did they have shackles in their legs. They had learnt the painful way that the guards could electrocute them with just a press of a button, bringing memories from the Triceraton prison. Oh, good times.

“How do we always end up going to prison when we visit space?” Mikey had asked.

They had been marked with numbers; Mikey was 1, Don 3, Raph 4 and Leo 5. Don had already figured out the meaning of the numbers. “It must be the order we’ll be entering the arena. Remember, they said that the tradition here is that the oldest of the group was usually the last one, right? Mikey is the youngest, so it makes sense.” Nobody had been pleased about  Mikey being the first, especially Mikey, but there was no way to chance the numbers.

It also bothered them that this time they would be fighting alone. If they’d face anything like the monster they had faced in the Triceraton battle arena they’d be in trouble. It had been hard enough to beat it even with the four of them – so to do that alone…

They’d find out today. They had been picked up from their cell and walked into a simple, grey room. In the room there was sitting a strange, bluish creature with red eyes. He looked cautious, watching the turtles with care and backing up a bit as they arrived.

“Oh right, the teams have five members, that’s why the number 2 was missing. You must be our fifth member, right…?” Don asked, and carefully the blue alien nodded. Mikey grinned, stepping a bit closer to talk to him.

“Heya, I’m Mikey. Digging your skin color! What’s your name, dude?”

The stranger didn’t show any emotion, just tilted his head. “I don’t carry a name here. I just fight to get out”, he said in a high pitched voice. “I hope you won’t make a big show. I don’t want the audience to vote us to the next battle.”

Mikey was a bit surprised, looking back at his brothers. But the stranger continued. “I also hope you don’t disappoint on the arena. You don’t look too strong.”

Mikey’s eyes shot back at him, looking down on him. He was shorter and smaller than the turtles, yet he spoke like he could take all of them here and now.

“Well, when we came in, you were looking pretty scared”, Raph grumbled, stepping forward as well. “You talk big for your size.”

“I don’t want to fight”, the stranger said. “I was just wary of you. Sometimes you get aggressive prisoners in your group, so you have to be careful. They don’t care who they fight – many have been killed in these waiting rooms by their own group members. I wish to get along. I wish to survive. I hope you do too.”

“So, you’ve been on the arena before?” Leo spoke up.

The stranger nodded. “And I see you have not. Just my luck”, he mumbled, sounding annoyed. He then eyed the turtles, noticing the number 1 on Mikey’s arm. “Hm. I hope you can take down at least one”, the stranger grumbled, then turning away from them. So much for “wanting to get along.”

“Any advice you could give us?” Leo asked. The stranger scoffed. “No advice will help you here. You either can or can’t fight.” Leonardo crossed his arms and looked at Don, who just shrugged.

“Attention!” A loud voice; the announcer. “We’ll go through the rules now. Attention, please. They won’t be repeated.

“On the arena, you will fight to death. If you manage to kill your enemy, you’ll face the enemy group’s next battler. If you kill them as well, you’ll then face their third member, and so on. However, it is possible to yield by dropping on your knees, and that means that both of your knees will have to touch the ground. If you yield or die, the turn to fight will be given to the next one in your group.

”If the last one of the group yields, their life will be spared. After a month of prison they’ll get a new group and get to try the game again.”

“Well, why don’t we all just yield, so when Leo yields we’ll just be spared?” Mikey piped in.

“Yeah, and after a month we’d just be here again”, Raph grumbled. Mikey shrugged. “But we’d figure out how to escape during that time.” Don and Leo hushed them; they’d need to hear the rules properly.

“If the last one of the group does this, all the previous survivors in his group will be executed.”

Mikey stared and Raph shook his head, should’ve figured something like that. Even though it made no sense.

“Okay, maybe we won’t be doing that”, Mikey decided, sounding nervous again.

“If the last one of the group dies, his group will be executed. The audience can vote against it, if they want to see the group or some of its members again on the arena. In that case, they’ll go back to prison and attend the game again”, the announcement continued in the same, monotone voice.

“If the last one of the group wins, the audience votes for their life. They get spared if the audience wants to see them again.”

“Harsh”, Mikey breathed. “And stupid, who made these rules?”

“This game is not meant for the whole group to survive”, Don mumbled. “It’s meant for the survivor of a single individual – who is often the oldest and most experienced of the group, the last one. If the last one has got a bad group who loses or yields quickly, the last one has bad chances of winning as he’d have to win everything by himself. Therefore they yield, surviving themselves, but getting their weak group killed… hoping that next time they’ll get a better group so that they could win. It’s brutal; they’re doing this for fun, for winning.”

They were impressed by Donatello’s quick analysis, but it also made them feel even more uncomfortable about the situation they were in. The stranger wasn’t that impressed, just scoffing at Donatello’s words, already knowing all this.

“Think we’re going to be against some really awful, experienced guys who just want to win?” Mikey asked, laughing nervously.

“With our luck, yeah”, Raph said grimly.

Leo was frowning, thinking about the rules; he was the last one, but even if he won, it didn’t automatically mean he’d get spared. The audience had to vote for him. The audience would have to vote for his brothers as well, unless they found a way to escape before that. But for now, he hid the worry, placing a firm hand on Mikey’s shoulder.

“Or they could have a group of unexperienced members like us”, Leo tried to comfort his brother. “Even though we’re unexperienced on this arena, were not unexperienced in battle– think of this as a normal fight, just no weapons. Think about all the battles we’ve been through.”

His words made the stranger look at them with mild disbelief. He clearly didn’t see them as fighters.

Mikey bit his fingers, a nervous habit of his, not really listening to his brother as more frightening thoughts had entered his mind. “But what if they all really are some battle gods, it would be like _five_ final battle bosses in row, oh man, we’re goners–“

Raph slapped the back of his head. “Shut up, Mikey. We ain’t scared of some aliens who want to win something this stupid”, Raph grumbled.

“We’ll just win, go to the prison and figure out how to escape before the next game”, Leo added. “Or even better, figure out a way to escape before going back to the prison.” His brothers turned to look at Leo when he spoke, and Leo looked back at them.

“What?” Leo asked.

“Did you just sound nervous, Fearless Leader?” Raphael teased and Leonardo crossed his arms, looking grim again. Don stepped a bit closer before he spoke.

“It’s because you’re the last one, right?”

Leo fell silent, but nodded eventually. He clenched his fists. It was Raphael’s turn to place his hand on Leo’s shoulder. “Oh, don’t worry. Don’t you trust us to be able to fight? There won’t be anything left for you if it’s up to me.”

“I don’t like to just watch”, Leo mumbled.

“Want to have all the glory yourself?” Raph continued, sounding way too cocky. Leo didn’t like that, didn’t want Raph to take this too lightly, and he shook Raphael’s hand off.

“It’d just be better if we could fight together”, Leo sighed, and his brothers silently agreed with that.

“First group – get ready!” the announcer’s voice howled through the arena again. A door on their left opened, and the brothers looked at each other. They knew there was security everywhere, and they’d just get into trouble again if they hesitated now. They walked to the door, Mikey slower than the others.

“I don’t wanna”, Mikey whined, but Raph pulled him after them.

“Just yield then”, Raph said. “Don can do that too – I can fight your opponents”, he continued his blustering. Don laughed a bit at that.

“Well, I’m going to try to take down at least one”, Don said sheepishly. “But Raph is right, Mikey. If things get too rough, just yield.” Don’s reassuring look made Mikey take a deep breath and calm down a bit.

“Well, I’m the Battle Nexus Champion – this should be no problem!” Mikey announced, making Raph groan and Don chuckle. It would be better if Mikey got his spirits up, as long as he wouldn’t get too cocky.

“Better watch it, Don – could be that there’s nobody left for you”, Mikey continued, but was unable to completely shake the nervousness from his voice. Raph grinned and looked at Leo. “Same goes for you, Fearless”, he smirked. “There’s no way I’m yielding.”

“Battlers. If you decide to yield, you will be returned here, where you can watch the battle continue. Keep in mind that we don’t provide healers; if you die from the wounds you got from the battle, it does not matter to us. You have five minutes before we begin.”

Mikey’s confidence disappeared and he was panicking again. “But- but what if I can’t get to my knees before they decide to beat me, what if I fall on my shell instead? What if they hit my pretty face and there are no healers– “

“ _Mikey_ ”, Raph grumbled warningly. Leo turned to look at his brothers.

“Listen, don’t take _any_ unneeded risks. Avoid situations where you couldn’t get on your knees, don’t let them grab you, avoid taking hits to the head. If it looks even a _little_ bit like the next blow would really hurt you – just drop on your knees. If there are no healers, we can’t take that kind of risks”, Leo spoke gravely.

The stranger laughed for the first time. Leo ignored him.

“I think we can take a hit or two, Leo”, Raph grumbled in return, ignoring the stranger as well. “I’m not getting’ on my knees after the first punch I take.”

“But we don’t know what we’ll be up against – they could be much bigger than we are. It would be easy for them to prevent us from kneeling, and they’d easily… kill us. Do you want to risk that, Raph?”

Raph answered with silence, but Mikey turned to Leo with big, sad eyes. “Then how are we supposed to fight against someone way bigger than us without weapons? Remember when we fought that giant tentacle thing on the Triceraton arena? We would’ve really gotten our shells kicked without that statue!”

“Well haven’t you guys just traveled the universe”, the stranger mumbled upon hearing about the Triceratons, but he was ignored once again.

“You have to think out of the box, just like back then”, Leo said. “Wear the enemy down and use your agility against them. You’re great at that kind of stuff, Mikey. You can use your brains when you really want to.”

Mikey snickered a bit. “Was that supposed to be a compliment?”

“Take it as one”, Leo smiled back. But his smile quickly faded. “And remember; don’t hesitate yielding. It doesn’t matter if you don’t beat your opponent.  Just… don’t get hurt.”

Mikey’s face was a mix of confidence and fear, but he gave Leo a thumbs up. “Hurt? When do I ever.”

“It’s time”, the announcer interrupted them. “Number one.”

“Wish me luck, bros”, Mikey said, and they heard how he tried to keep his panic in control. A door opened in front of them, but before he went, Raphael patted his shell.

“Don’t push it”, he said in a low tone, and Mikey smiled at him. “See you in a bit”, Don said, and Mikey grinned. “Naturally! After all, I am the Battle Nexus–“ the door closed behind him before he could finish. Raphael shook his head, and they all moved to the window where they could see the arena.

During their discussion they hadn’t had time to really look at it, but now they saw it clearly. They saw the audience, but couldn’t hear loud cheers like the last time they were in the same kind of situation. No, there were no reporters updating the audience on the situation nor a generally cheery atmosphere. They were all just waiting patiently… for the bloodshed.

Leonardo bit his lip as he watched Mikey appear on the arena. At the same time his opponent appeared too, and they all grimaced a bit. He was muscular and tall, and actually looked a bit like the opponent Mikey had had the last time they had battled at the Battle Nexus. Mikey had gotten kicked around back then, but had won at the end. So they didn’t know how Mikey would react to this, would he remember his last battle and be scared, or be confident since he won the last time?

“There’s nothing to use on the arena. Just your own hands and legs”, Don observed.

“Wouldn’t be the first time Mikey beats a guy like that without any outside help”, Raph pointed out. They’d just have to watch and see.

On the arena Mikey was feeling nervous. Like his brothers, he thought the guy looked familiar; maybe he was from the same planet where his opponent from the Battle Nexus had been. Mikey wouldn’t let that affect him; apparently all the guys from that planet tended to get into battle arenas.

The arena wasn’t very big, but the walls around it were huge. When he looked up, he could see the audience. It was eerily quiet, but Mikey didn’t have time to think about the audience. He had to keep his eyes on the enemy, couldn’t let his attention slip. They started circling each other, Mikey trying to figure out how to take out this guy way bigger than him. Going for the legs would be the easiest way, the bigger they were, the harder they fell, right? But he’d have to get close, and he didn’t want to give this guy a chance to grab him.

As they stared at each other, Mikey didn’t feel any kind of bloodthirst coming from his opponent. He looked like the kind of guy to be easily agitated and therefore his consecration would be easy to break, but he didn’t _feel_ like that. Maybe he just wanted to survive and get out of here like he did. Or maybe he was just good at hiding his thirst for battle – you just couldn’t know. But the feeling he got was more like… like he wanted to respect him. Like neither one of them really wanted this, but just had to. He could’ve started with taunting, trying to get the other one worked up, but he settled for waiting.

And he didn’t need to wait for long; his opponent lunged, ready to punch. He was tilted forward, so going for his legs now wasn’t a good idea, so he should go for his neck. Just as the fist came close Mikey jumped, but to his shock his enemy had expected him to do that. He grabbed the smaller turtle while he was in the air, smashing him on his shell to the ground. “The small ones always go for the neck”, his opponent whispered as Mikey struggled in his grip.

“No!” Raph bellowed, punching the window. Don moved unconsciously closer to his brothers, looking worriedly at the arena. Leo clenched his fists, but forced himself to stay calm, placing his hand on Raphael’s arm.

“Mikey will get free”, Leo said, but it didn’t make any of them feel better. The stranger chuckled as he watched.

“You sure talked big earlier but here we are now”, he said. Raph stepped away from the window, ready to punch the guy, but Leo stopped him.

“Raph”, he warned, and they returned to the window. Seeing Mikey was more important at the moment.

They moved just in time to see how the enemy’s fist connected with Mikey’s face.

It made all of them flinch, and Raph growled loudly. “I’ll go there and I swear I’ll–“

But Mikey’s struggling had paid off; he had managed to get his leg in position and kicked his opponent’s face, and with a grunt the giant let go of him. Mikey jumped back up, and before putting some distance between them he kicked his opponent again. He hadn’t quite recovered from the first kick straight to his eye, so it was easy to hit. This time Mikey only hit his cheek, so it wasn’t as effective, but hey, it was something.

But now there was some distance between them again, and Mikey had time to touch his hurting face. His opponent had really hit him hard, and by the headache and pain it had caused, Mikey figured he couldn’t take any more of those. He had to shake his head a bit to clear his mind, yeah, definitely couldn’t afford taking any more of that.

His opponent had recovered, looking a bit irritated by his eye, but otherwise nothing in his posture had changed. He was the one to attack first again, and Mikey panicked a bit. What should he do now? Try to do what he had tried at first or just try to avoid him? That would basically mean just running away. And that would mean Mikey would just waste his energy for nothing; there was no way out of this.

Well, if he couldn’t go up, he’d go down. As his opponent came closer Mikey slid under him and appeared behind him, and before the giant could turn Mikey had jumped. A swift kick got a pained grunt out of his enemy, but it wasn’t enough to make him fall. Afraid of the punches Mikey put some distance between them again, and that gained an annoyed grunt form the giant. Not so patient after all.

Or maybe he was, because he didn’t lunge again. They were back to circling each other, and it just went on and on until Mikey could feel _his_ patience ending. But this was better than taking a punch, so he wasn’t in any hurry.

Distant booing could be heard from the audience. Well, at least they wouldn’t want to vote for Mikey, which was good. Or was it? He couldn’t remember the rules. It felt weird to think that being popular wasn’t good – Mikey liked to be popular! But, well… not like this.

The audience didn’t seem to matter to either one of them, so the circling continued. Until a loud, whistling noise came from their left side and Mikey turned to look. But that was a mistake; his opponent hadn’t cared about the whistle, and in just seconds he attacked. Mikey’s attention was instantly back on him, but he had no time to move; a strong kick sent him flying through the air. His shell took the impact of his fall, but the kick _really_ hurt. Mikey groaned, knowing he’d need to get up and away. He had been so stupid to look at the whistle, it had just been a bluff by the announcer – but he had been startled by it!

Mikey got up, shocked by his opponent’s speed – he had already caught up. Mikey couldn’t move fast enough this time either, but he tried to block the punch. He managed to guard most of his face with his hands, but the force sent him back to the ground. But this time he did not hesitate. As the enemy’s hand came down to grab him again Mikey gave his fingers a strong kick, making him pull his hand back. With a swift move Mikey was back on his feet, trying a direct approach this time. He kicked the enemy’s stomach, and when he reeled forward Mikey got a chance to jump up and kick him on the head. That sent him stumbling backwards, so all that was left was to repeat what he had done.

The giant was soon on his back on the ground, but still conscious. That’s when it hit him; they had to fight to the _death._ No way would he do that, so he looked around him on the arena. What could he do?

His opponent groaned and tried to get up, but Mikey jumped on his stomach and gave him a kick strong enough to send him unconscious. The moment he did that the announcer spoke.

“The enemy is down. All that’s left is death.”

The audience was still silent; the battle hadn’t been worth cheering for. Mikey looked helplessly around himself. “I don’t want to do that; can’t I just let the guy go?”

It took a long time for the announcer to answer. “We don’t care. Bring in the next enemy.”

Mikey’s opponent disappeared from under him, and Mikey grinned. He had won! Mikey turned to look at the direction where he expected his brothers to be, but couldn’t see them. Well, he knew they were somewhere up there, so he gave them a thumbs up, hoping they’d see it.

Raphael grinned down at Mikey, turning to look at the stranger. “In your face, you asshole. Better keep your mouth shut.”

The stranger just crossed his arms and said nothing. It was for his benefit that Mikey had won, so why would he complain? The turtle creatures just got on his nerves. Newbies.

“Let’s just hope the next one isn’t worse”, Don said. “Mikey already had a close call at the beginning of this fight.”

Mikey had turned to face the entrance where his next opponent would appear from, feeling a bit nervous once again. The adrenaline from his victory was slowly leaving him, leaving more room for fear.

After a short wait the entrance opened, and Mikey wished it hadn’t.

This opponent was about the same size as the first one, but _covered_ in scars. Just scar after scar. And he looked _mean_ as heck. Mikey gulped, well, he had already taken down one, right? One for all of them, right? Besides, next in turn would be the stranger, not one of his brothers. The need to just kneel and get out of here grew strong, but Mikey held his ground. He could do this. Maybe. Probably not.

It was clear from the start that there would be no circling; the audience had suddenly gotten loud, cheering upon seeing the new opponent. If the audience loved him, then it meant he had been here before and had made the audience happy. And if the audience was happy, then Mikey was in trouble.

And indeed, no circling. The red-scaled opponent sprinted towards him accompanied with a loud shriek. The being wasn’t just big, but fast too. With a yelp Mikey avoided him, but it was immediately after him again. The situation was what Mikey hadn’t wanted it to be; he was just aimlessly running away from the beast hunting him, screaming from the top of his lungs. All he needed to do was to kneel, but he hadn’t even touched the beast. He’d need to try, at least. Mikey made a sharp turn, using the tactic he had used with the giant earlier. He slipped through the beasts legs, or at least he thought he had done that.

He had only gotten half-way when the beast grabbed his hand and lifted him up in the air. It brought Mikey in front of its face, grinning at him with a mouth full of sharp teeth. Which it shouldn’t have done; Mikey’s flexibility was of use once again, and he kicked the being in the face. He was on a roll with kicking monsters in the face today.

But the opponent didn’t even seem to be bothered about it; its grip did not loosen. It just tightened and Mikey grimaced against the pain, aiming his next kick to its stomach. It hit, but the enemy’s eyes just lit up at that. With horror Mikey realized that it opened its mouth, aiming to take a bite.

Mikey punched the side of its face with his free hand, gaining an angry growl from it. It grabbed his other hand to prevent Mikey from punching, but the turtle had decided to not give it a taste; Mikey kicked, this time with both of his legs. Two strong legs to the chin did the trick, and Mikey was released.

When there was ground under his feet once again Mikey felt the urgent need to get away, but his opponent was faster to recover than expected. Its hands came down, hitting Mikey on the back of his head, making him fall on his plastron. Mikey moaned in pain as he blinked sand from his eyes, letting out a horrified scream as he suddenly felt teeth on the side of his shell. His opponent really wanted a bite, but had chosen a bit bad place to try. The audience cheered loudly, but Mikey didn’t like the fact that there would soon be teeth marks on his shell. But the position was awkward; he couldn’t really move or he’d give his enemy a perfect chance to switch from shell to skin. But the apparently-hungry-beast had decided to try to fix that itself; Mikey felt how it tried to turn him around in order to bite him elsewhere.

“What the _fuck,_ is that even allowed?” Raphael shouted, punching the window again. “He’s trying to eat him!”

“Oh, everything’s allowed here”, the stranger said, but sounded quite worried knowing he’d most likely be against that beast next. He could only hope the beast would be slowed down by the meal it was about to get.

Mikey tried to fight back – but there was nothing to do. It would soon be able to turn him around, and he’d become a turtle burger for this beast. Leo’s words _don’t get hurt_ were suddenly loud in his head and oh, what would he give if one of his brothers were here to have his back.

But they wouldn’t be.

The beast finally got a better angle and repositioned its mouth.

The only thing muffling Mikey’s scream was the audience howling around them.


	2. Chapter 2

“Mikey!”

The three brothers were practically glued to the window, watching in horror.

The beast had its lower row of teeth slowly sinking into Mikey’s side, the upper teeth still scraping the edge of his shell. The pain wasn’t the worst Mikey had endured, but sharp teeth piercing his soft skin? Not nice. And he knew it wasn’t going to get any nicer – so his instinct kicked in, and with clumsy hands he tried to find his opponents face. It wasn’t hard since the beast was so close to him, and with a grunt Mikey punched its yellowish eye. The beast had had its full attention on Mikey’s flesh, unable to see the attack, so when it received the punch it opened its mouth to shriek. Mikey wasted no time rolling away, but the maddened beast wasn’t going to let his meal go.

Mikey yelped as he saw the teeth coming close again, he was still on his shell and had no time to get up. As the only option he grabbed the open jaws, trying to keep them away. The beast was snarling as it tried to get closer and snap its jaws close, and Mikey felt his hands shaking from the effort. Or maybe from the fear? Both, probably.

“C’mon Mike”, Raph breathed against the window. They saw how the ground turned a tiny bit of red under Mikey, and Mikey himself sure felt it. His side ached where he had been bitten, and he knew he was bleeding. Not too much, but enough to weaken his whole left side. His left hand would give in first if this went on, but Mikey only had his legs free. He tried to kick the beast, but it wasn’t effective enough to do anything.

Drool dripped on his plastron and Mikey turned his head away from the horrible breath the beast had. He felt the drool soak his fingers as well, which meant his grip would get slippery. Things just really didn’t look good. Mikey pressed his eyes shut, trying to think. But the growling above him made it difficult; any moment now and this beast would probably sink its teeth into his neck.

His fingers slid a bit against the wet skin of the beast, and Mikey knew it was now or never. He let go with his right hand, keeping the beast’s jaws away with just one hand. It made the beast move closer, but before it was too close, Mikey punched with his freed hand. He put everything into it, and the skin on his hand got torn as it hit the beast’s sharp teeth. It hurt and made his hand bleed, but it worked; the beast’s head reeled to the side, and Mikey had his both hands free. He didn’t use them to hit again or to get up; he just rolled to his better side, getting up on his knees before the monster recovered.

The moment both of his knees hit the ground he was teleported away from the arena.

He appeared in the room he had stayed in before stepping to the arena, still on his knees. His brothers immediately turned away from the window, running to him, and suddenly there were three pairs of hands on him. Mikey felt too tired to completely register this, but he felt happy. Exhausted, but at least he was alive.

“Sorry bros”, he breathed tiredly. “Too much teeth for me.” He felt dizzy, so he let himself lean on the closest brother. By the strong grip he figured it was Raph.

“It’s alright now, Mikey”, Raph said as he moved Mikey just a bit, so that his shell was against his plastron. Don was on his side, looking at the teeth marks he had gotten. Leo had ripped pieces from the curtains the room had, as there wasn’t really anything else to use. He kneeled on Mikey’s right side, giving Don the fabric. With them Don was able to stop the bleeding, meanwhile Leo observed Mikey’s wounded hand and bandaged it carefully.

“Man, it feels good to be the center of attention”, Mikey joked as he looked at his brothers around him, making them glare at him.

"Bet you didn't think that back on the arena", Raph muttered. “But hey, you sent some of the thing’s teeth flying when you punched it on the mouth. That looked badass.”

“Thanks”, Mikey grinned tiredly.

“You beat the first guy, so you did more than enough”, Leo said, holding Mikey’s hand even though it was already bandaged. Mikey could tell Leo wanted to scold him for not surrendering before, but he was glad Leo didn’t press it. It had already felt like a blow to the ego to yield so soon.

“You did great, Mikey. The battle was really unfair”, Don said as he finished his job. “It’s good you got him off of you so soon, these teeth marks aren’t too deep.”

“Yeah, well, just wanted him as far away from me as possible”, Mikey said, suddenly looking like he remembered something. “Oh, right, sorry, stranger guy – looks like you’re up against that beas- oh, he’s gone.” His brothers turned to the door just in time to see the stranger walk out of the door, since it was his turn next. Don and Leo moved to the window in order to see, but Raph stayed with Mikey, letting his little brother lean on him.

After making sure Mikey was comfortable Raph lifted his head to look at the direction of the window. “Keep us updated”, he said, eager to know how the stranger was doing. But upon seeing their expressions Raph knew something was wrong already. Don looked frightened and Leo was tense again, keeping his hands in tight fists.

“Don, give me your mask. Let’s switch”, Leo suddenly said, his fingers already on the back of his head to take off his mask. Don turned to look at him, fear on his face turning into confusion.  He grabbed Leo’s hand to prevent him from taking his mask.

“Leo, no- I can fight!” Don said, holding Leo’s hands as he still had them on his mask. Don hesitated a bit, but continued talking. “Well, of course I don’t want to face him – but I have to, Leo. It’s not about how we look, it’s the numbers. I’m next and we can’t change it.” Don looked at him with a mix of determination and fear, feeling funny how he had to reassure his brother instead of himself. Well, he had a bad feeling about this, but so did the others. But there was nothing Leo could do about it, and he’d need to accept it.

But Leo didn’t look like he’d accept it. Raphael helped Mikey to lean on the wall, too curious to see what was happening. He walked to the window while Leonardo slowly lowered his hand from his mask, hanging his head in defeat. Don kept his hand on Leo’s arm.

“Oh man”, Raphael’s grave tone snapped their attention back to the arena. When they turned to look they wished they hadn’t.

The beast had the stranger in its teeth, shaking him around roughly. Blood started to fill the ground as he was being tossed around, the beast tearing him apart. He was probably unconscious at this point as they couldn’t hear him scream, but the knowledge didn’t make it any easier. They turned their heads away. It was over for the stranger. Over before it even began.

“What? What?” Mikey asked when he saw his brother’s reactions, trying to scoot closer. Raphael was quickly next to him again, gently pressing him back against the wall. “Just stay still, Mikey”, Raph scolded.

He hesitated before talking, but he knew it couldn’t be hidden from Mike. “Our guy didn’t make it. It’s not pretty.”

Mikey lowered his head.

Don fidgeted and Leo walked around the room, looking at the walls, trying to find something, a secret door, anything. But the room was completely empty, there wasn’t even anything to use on the arena. They knew there wasn’t much time before the stranger would die and it would be Don’s turn.

Leo hit the wall in frustration, making his brothers look at him. He returned back to Don, grabbing his brother’s hand. “I’ll just go in your stead anyways. Maybe they won’t notice”, Leo still tried, but Don shook his head.

“No, didn’t you hear that one story back in the prison? They were talking about this very impatient fighter. He was supposed to be the last, so when the first one of their group was supposed to go, he just went in his stead. But the system works with these numbers; when you go through that door, it registers the battler. If the battler doesn’t go through the door he will get electrocuted the same way you do if you don’t behave in the prison. But it won’t be just one shock; they’ll keep doing it until you go to the arena. But since someone had already gone through the door, the door was closed and the real fighter couldn’t go. So the shocks just kept coming until… you know. And that happened to the one who was next in line, and the next, until it really was the turn of the last fighter.”

They all fell silent and Don slowly looked back at the arena. Leo raised his hand from Don’s arm to his shoulder, making Don look back at him.

“Just don’t let it bite you or do anything to slow you down too much. Try to wear it out a bit”, Leo spoke in a serious tone.

“Yeah, don’t let it get a bite like someone around here”, Raph said, half-joking, gaining a tired slap from Mikey.

“But really, Donnie, it’s fine to just yield. Just make it run around a bit and I’ll come to take care of it”, Raph continued in a more serious tone, looking Don in the eyes. Don smiled at him.

“You’re worrying about it more than I am”, Don laughed, trying to shake some of his nervousness with it. Didn’t really work, but it made him feel better to hear his brothers encourage him.

“I got advice too; it doesn’t like its eyes poked”, Mikey said. Don laughed again.

“Yeah, we noticed. Good thinking, Mikey.”

“Number 3.”

The door opened as the announcer spoke, and Leo’s hand was on Don’s arm again.

“I got this, Leo. Just tire it out, I know”, Don said gently as he looked at his big brother. Leo nodded, giving his hand a small squeeze before letting go.

The stranger’s body had been moved from the arena, so the beast had nothing to chew on. Growling it circled the arena, waiting for its next target, hoping it could feast on the next one. The audience was thrilled by the first death of the day, and their loud cheering took Don by surprise as he entered the arena. The restless beast, still waiting more, hadn’t noticed Don yet. There were still blood splatters around the ground, and the smell made Don’s skin crawl. It also disturbed him that the arena was too small to effectively avoid the blood, so he’d probably end up stepping on it at some point.

The beast noticed him; Don could tell by how its movements suddenly stopped. It turned its head slowly, curiously looking into his direction. The audience went quiet as well, waiting in anticipation. Don had hoped he could take his enemy by surprise, but the arena made sneaking around impossible. Well, it would’ve kind of taken away the point of a battle arena anyways, if it had been possible to sneak in the shadows. He just wished he’d have his weapon. Every time the beast would come too close he could just smack it across the face with his bō, and maybe jam its mouth with it too. Breaking its jaw with hard wood would be even better, but his weapon was probably behind locked doors somewhere around the prison. It was no use to think about it. Don prepared himself as the beast started jogging towards him.

The monster lunged, and Don ducked to the side, putting some distance between them before the monster was after him again. When it lunged again, Don stepped to the side again. This continued for a while, Don making sure to constantly calculate their distance in order to stay far enough. He had seen up close what those teeth could do just in a short time, so it was really better to not let this beast get too close.

But Don knew this wouldn’t continue forever, he was bound to make a mistake sooner or later, or the monster could do something unexpected. He’d have to act soon.

Leonardo noticed that Donatello was getting too close to the walls surrounding him, so he’d need to change the direction of his steps. But Don’s eyes were on the beast and Leo didn’t know if Don was aware of that. Leo placed his hands against the window despite himself; if only he could warn him. But there was no use in shouting, so he kept silent. Raph had helped Mikey to the window so they could watch, now that Mikey’s dizziness had passed. They all noticed that Don had stepped in one of the puddles of blood, and even from here they saw how it startled him. It was bad as it stole Don’s attention for a moment, a moment which Don could’ve used to notice the wall. Leo cursed in his mind.

Don felt disgusted at the feeling of sticky blood, but tried to keep his mind away from it. The beast was attacking again and Don had to move; but he felt his shell bump into the solid wall.

The beast jumped, letting out an excited growl as it had finally cornered its prey. But Don had decided to not be its prey today – with ease he ducked and turned around to watch as the beast hit the wall with full force. It wasn’t able to change its course mid-air, so it hit its head with a loud _crack_ and fell to the ground.

“Calculated”, Don muttered under his breath, a bit bewildered at the fact that the beast was lying on the ground. It was dead silent now. Don took careful steps back, expecting the beast to get up any moment. But it didn’t and Don prayed it had just cracked its skull or something. Seconds passed by and it seemed like everyone was holding their breath. Don knew he was.

And finally, the beast stirred, trying to get up. The audience didn’t cheer, but everybody was whispering and staring at the arena. Don sighed, taking extra steps backwards. He could try to repeat this, and maybe this time the beast would break something.

But the beast didn’t seem to be so interested in hunting him anymore. It just slowly dragged itself closer to Don, clearly suffering from the hit to the head. Its steps stopped and it growled slowly; something was happening to its shoulder. Something moved under its skin, making Don feel disgusted by looking at it. But he couldn’t do anything but stare as a huge, sharp spike started to grow from its shoulder, breaking the skin and continuing growing. When it finally stopped the beast looked straight at Don, making a sound which resembled laughter.

It was fascinating, disgusting and probably painful. But most of all, it was bad news for Don.

“Great”, Don muttered under his breath, moving his hands to get a better grip on his bō-staff; only to remember he didn’t have his weapon with him. He backed away.

With the spike, which resembled a huge claw, the beast had seemed to gotten more energy, even though it was heavily bleeding from its forehead. It lunged, starting the chase. And this time Don just ran, forgetting his calculations. The only plan going through his head was the one where he’d just get the beast to hit its head against the wall again, so he’d go for that. When he got close to a wall he turned away, ready to move out of the way as soon as the beast would come closer. But as soon as his enemy saw this, it slowed down. Don’s face dropped; not good. It was more intelligent than it looked, not completely driven by its thirst for blood.

Don sprinted, but as soon as there was no wall behind him the monster jumped at him. And it was too fast; its claws scraped Don’s shell, pushing him down on his plastron. During that it stepped on Don’s leg and a jolt of pain went through him, making him cry out.

His attention was fixated on the pain in his leg, especially when the beast turned him on his shell – the movement made him scream again – but when he noticed the newly grown claw his attention moved from the pain.

The claw shot down, missing Don just by inches as he rolled away. Again, the movement made him gasp and tears to form in his eyes, but he tried to ignore it. He really did.

The next blow was too fast for him to completely avoid; the spike sank into his already hurting leg. Don yelled as pain filled him again, but the need to survive made him grab the spike that was still resting in his leg. As the beast lifted his claw Don bit his lip in order to not scream, still holding onto the claw. It lifted him up from the ground, and before the beast could try to shake him off he let go. This was the only way he could get the speed he needed, as he knew he could no longer jump with this leg; as he fell from the claw down on the beast Don sent a strong kick to the beasts face with his healthy leg. It surprised the beast, and thanks to the angle where the kick came from the beast stumbled, falling on its back. Don obviously fell with the monster, falling against its huge chest. Don was the first to recover, but the spike moved fast; Don grabbed it again, keeping it in place, only inches away from his face.

The beast moved its hands to grab Don, but the genius knew this was probably his last chance to get something done. With this leg he couldn’t get away, so if he didn’t win _now,_ he’d probably die, pierced by the spike he was holding.

Collecting his strength Don tried to twist the claw around. It moved surprisingly easily, as the beast couldn’t control it with same kind of strength as his other limbs.

Just as he felt the beasts hand on his shell he had gotten the claw in position, and pressed it down with all his strength, relying on his body weight as well. It sank into the beast’s chest, missing vital organs but making blood splatter on Don’s hands and on the ground. The audience gasped, surprised about the outcome. It was the beasts turn to yell, and with an angry punch it sent Don flying away. Don landed on his shell, yelling taking too much energy, so all he managed was to gasp. It was obvious he couldn’t even stand anymore, so he’d have to kneel, quickly. The beast was bleeding heavily now, it wouldn’t be hard for Raph to finish it off. Don grimaced as he moved himself on his side, breathing heavily as he realized he’d have to use his bleeding leg in order to kneel. It wouldn’t take long, he knew, so he pushed himself up.

Only to be immediately pushed back down. The monster hovered above him, growling deeply. It was furious.

“No, no, no!” Mikey cried as he pressed his head against the window. “It’s my fault for not beating that guy – Don wouldn’t be there if I-“

“Mikey, it’s _not_ your fault”, Raph growled, not mad at his brother, just feeling furious for having to watch Don get hurt. He didn’t move his eyes from the arena as he spoke. “He just needs to get on his knees – _god_ I’m going to kill that fucker…”

Despite its rage the monster still wanted to play. Maybe the rage even fueled that need. It kicked Don, sending him away rolling; it knew Don could no longer escape. Don whined quietly, trying to push himself up to his knees again, but he was too weak. The beast was immediately next to him, pressing Don back to the ground. It knew what he was trying to do, and it wasn’t going to allow it. It kicked him again, and this time Don didn’t have the strength to try to get up. He knew the beast was already there, breathing down his neck and ready to kick him again. Or maybe it was finally bored of him, ready to use its teeth instead.

Don knew his brothers were watching, and if they felt anything like he had felt when watching Mikey battle down here, he figured they felt awful. Don didn’t want them to worry, but he… he hadn’t taken down even one battler. He cursed himself for letting the beast get his leg. He didn’t even know how bad the damage was, only knew it was bleeding a lot and hurt more than enough.

Don heard the beasts’ steps, how the sand scrunched under its feet as it got closer. He pressed his eyes shut, fear finally taking over him.

Well, Leo hadn’t been wrong when he had worried for him. When was Leo ever wrong? Next time he’d listen.  If he’d ever get to hear his brother again.


	3. Chapter 3

The beast grabbed the back of Don’s mask, forcefully lifting his head up. Don felt the tug, but felt too powerless to look. He could feel the beast shaking him a bit, growling impatiently, apparently wanting the turtle to look at it. Slowly Don opened his eyes, seeing that the monster had lowered its head so it could stare Don in the eyes and show him his teeth. It wanted to make him afraid. It would’ve probably worked, Don would’ve been scared of the row of sharp teeth just inches away from his face, hadn’t his vision been spinning so much.

The audience was cheering again, and it made the beast purr. Actually purr. Don blinked his eyes to keep the world from spinning; it didn’t really help, but now he noticed how close the beasts face really was. Its eyes were right there, and Don could hear Mikey’s words in his head. The eyes...

All it would take would be just one, good punch…

But Don didn’t have the energy. His mind was foggy, and he noticed that the beast had switched from purring to growling as Don hadn’t given it the reaction it had wanted upon seeing its deathly teeth.

Don gritted his teeth. The pain made his head clear a bit. Oh, he’d give the monster a reaction.

So he punched, disappointed at how powerless it was. But it hit its target; the monsters eye. It howled, not liking any contact with is fragile eyes, and it quickly moved its face away. The monster let go of him, and this time Don didn’t let himself fall. He caught himself with his hands, dragging his wounded leg so both of his knees could touch the ground. The movement caused him to cry out in pain, but he grabbed the leg with his hands, dragging it up with force, since he could no longer move it.

Before he even registered that the teleportation had worked his brothers were already there, helping him to lie down, already trying to stop the bleeding in his leg. Even though they were being careful Don couldn’t help but hiss in pain when they moved his leg, but now the position was better and he realized he wouldn’t need to move – nor fight – anymore. Don felt dizzy and confused, understanding how Mikey had felt when he had been teleported here.

“Shit, Don…” he could hear his hotheaded brother mutter, and even Mikey had moved closer despite his own wonds. Mikey shouldn’t be moving yet, his wounds could easily bleed through the clumsy bandaging he had done, but Don was glad they were all there.

“I had never thought getting on your knees would be so difficult”, Don laughed tiredly, feeling like he had to say something. Leo’s face appeared into his line of sight, and Don smiled up at him. Leo smiled back, but his smile faded when Don’s did too.

“I… I couldn’t even beat…” the genius muttered, feeling Raphael’s hand on his shoulder.

“What are you talking about, you put up a show bigger than Mikey”, Raph smirked, gaining a “Hey!” from Mikey. He patted Don’s shoulder. “It’s good you’re here in one piece. Really scared us, bro.”

Don laughed weakly, trying to lift his head to see his leg. “My leg, how bad–?”

“Number 4.”

Raph growled, annoyed that he’d have to leave Don.

“You take care of him”, he said to Leo, but looked at Mikey. “Or should I say _them_. You shouldn’t be moving, Mikey.”

“Aw, such a mother hen”, Mikey teased him, dodging a slap.

Raphael was already getting up, but Leo stopped him. Raph turned to look at him, but his brother said nothing.

“Don’t look at me like that”, Raph said, grinning a bit. He patted Leo’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. Just focus on taking care of Donnie.”

Seeing the beast in the middle of the arena made Raphael’s blood boil. He had watched this creature almost _kill_ two of his brothers, and now he could finally pay back. The fear he had felt while watching Don struggling had turned into anger, and anger fueled his energy, which he would pour into this monster more than willingly. Raph walked towards the beast, unable to wait for it to begin attacking.

But as he got closer he noticed that the beast hadn’t even noticed his presence, even though it was so impatient before.

“Yo ugly, you’re getting it for hurting my brothers”, Raph grumbled, but as soon as he did, the beast fell to the ground. With confusion Raph stared at it, watching as blood spread from under it. He then remembered how Don had forced its own claw through its chest, and figured that the beast had lost too much blood. Great, nothing left for him. Raph got close enough the kick it once, but it disappeared from the arena soon after that, apparently dead from the loss of blood.

“Don, dude!” Mikey shouted. He had moved to the window to keep them updated. Leo was still next to Don, trying to figure out how badly Don’s leg had been crushed, although the wound worried him more. Don looked towards Mikey tiredly.

“Raph didn’t even touch that beast – it just fell and died because of that claw thing you did”, Mikey explained, sounding excited, but also disgusted. What Don had done hadn’t been pretty. “That means we both got one, great huh?”

Don laughed a bit, looking at the ceiling. “Great, yeah.” His leg didn’t really feel great, but he was glad to know that the beast was gone and it couldn’t hurt Raph. “But it is still 2-3.”

“Yeah, but at least we got rid of _that_ dude. The next one can’t be much worse, right?”

“Don’t say that, Mikey. With our luck it _is_ going to be someone worse than that.”

“Rest, Don”, Leo cut their conversation, and Mikey turned his attention back to the arena.

The next opponent walked in.

She was about the same height as Raph and looked almost delicate. She was a humanoid, but looked nothing like a human, even though she had beige, scarless skin.

Raphael didn’t like the fact that he’d have to fight a girl, but had learned the hard way that he shouldn’t underestimate anyone. She looked out of place here, no claws or teeth, no muscle. Perhaps she was here for the first time, too.

But then again, the earlier beast had grown a spike from its shoulder. He couldn’t let her looks deceive him.

But as she got closer Raph noticed that she really looked nothing like a fighter. She was afraid, unable to hide it. She had four big, violet eyes, and they were all on Raphael, watching him carefully.

“Please”, she said quietly. “Just make it quick.”

Raphael’s heart sank. He dropped his fists, unsure what to do with his hands now.

“You can just surrender, you know”, he said. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

The girl looked surprised about that, her eyes blinking up at him in confusion. It didn’t last for long, her face becoming grim again. “No. I’ve been here before, I don’t want this anymore. I just want it to end”, she spoke, hiding her eyes behind her hands. Was she crying?

“Mikey, what’s going on? What’s the next opponent like?” Leo asked impatiently when Mike had fallen silent. Don was feeling better now that he didn’t need to move around, and his leg wasn’t bleeding anymore. That didn’t mean he wasn’t in pain; what wouldn’t he do for good old aspirin right now. But he was feeling tired, and as he rested his head against Leo his eyes were only half open.

“It’s, um… it’s a girl”, Mikey said, unsure of how to describe the situation. “Doesn’t look like she wants to fight.”

Raph opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say. He took a careful step towards the girl, not wanting to scare her. She peeked at him between her fingers, but didn’t move away.

“Listen, uh… me and my brothers, we don’t want to fight either. We’re trying to get away too, we could help you”, Raph explained, cursing his luck. The others would’ve handled this better than him. He had just wanted to take his frustration out on someone, not comfort a girl.

The audience had stayed silent, but was starting to boo at them. At first it sounded like silent muttering, but got louder. The girl raised her head, glancing at the audience.

“Sounds like they’re getting impatient”, she said, still looking at the audience. She lowered her hands. “Better give them what they want.”

She was fast. As in, _really_ fast. Her punch wasn’t much, but she had claws, after all. Tiny, sharp claws, resembling the claws of a cat. Before Raph could react by throwing back a punch he had his cheek full of claw marks, and when he punched he didn’t hit. She only jumped away, and their eyes locked. She grinned.

Raph touched his cheek, remembering the times Mikey’s cat, Klunk, had scratched him. The wounds rarely bled much, but fuck, they _stung_. Especially now that he had his cheek full of them.

“Nice trick”, Raph commented, looking at his fingers. They were a bit red.

“I like it, too”, she chuckled. “I rarely get to use it. But the moment I saw you I knew you were a fool.”

She moved again and the audience was starting to sound happier. They were obviously cheering for her.

But she wouldn’t be difficult to beat; she was fast but fragile. He only needed to grab her and it would be over-

He felt a scratch on his arm, and he swung his fist again, but nobody was there. A scratch, again, this time on his leg, then again, on his cheek, his arm again, his other leg- and every time he turned she had already moved.

Anger started to bubble inside of him – _god_ he hated this, why couldn’t he just fight a huge beast like Mikey and Don had, someone who wasn’t running away! He felt another scratch, realizing that every new scratch was starting to become deeper than the previous one.

“Alright, scratch that”, Mikey said. Pun intended. “She wants to fight. She was just bluffing.”

“And Raph fell for that?” Leo asked, not believing what he was hearing. How could Raph afford to make mistakes when they were in a place like this? Leonardo let out a breath – he was nervous and it was making his temper rise. He had to stay calm. He didn’t even know what was going on down there, he shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

Don seemed to notice how tense he was, and he touched Leo’s hand reassuringly. He knew Leo was under a lot of stress, they all were worried for each other, but somehow Leo always ended up taking the responsibility for everything. Don was sure that even now Leo was thinking of ways how he should’ve avoided all of this, but what worried him the most was the fact that Leo was the last. He couldn’t yield because it’d mean they all would be killed, so he knew Leo would get himself killed on the arena in a blink of an eye if getting them killed was the other option. It made him hold Leo’s hand a bit tighter.

“Oh yeah, he totally did”, Mikey said, and would’ve been snickering since there was so much he could tease Raph about, but it looked like Raph was having trouble with his opponent. “And he’s in… trouble…”

Leo glanced at Don, who nodded at him tiredly.

“Go watch, Leo. If you’re up against her it’s good for you to see how she fights.” As much as Leo hated to leave Don, he knew he was right and got up, switching places with Mikey.

“ _Dammit_ , just face me!” Raph yelled when he still couldn’t grab the girl. Raph knew she’d have to tire out eventually, but the wounds he was getting weren’t just stinging anymore – they were hurting. Besides, there were still two more enemies after her, and Raph was not going to let Leo have both of them.

“Catch me first”, she called brightly from his left, but was already gone when Raph tried to lunge for her.

“Oh I’ll catch you alright”, Raph grunted. “And when I do…”

He received another cut, biting his lip in order to not cry out. He’d have to think, focus…

But it was difficult to think when new cuts were constantly appearing on his skin and stinging pain was all he could focus on.

The girl had to be circling him in order to plant new cuts so quickly. He had no way of knowing where she’d hit next, just knew that she was somewhere there, somewhere around him…

Raph clenched his fist, moving his legs a bit further from each other to get a good position and swirled with his fist out. He made and almost complete turn before his fist connected with soft skin, and he sent the girl away from him. She stumbled on the ground, surprised that he had managed to hit her.

She was holding her side where Raphael’s fist had got her, not looking pleased about this.

Raphael walked towards her, and she backed away, not so confident anymore. She didn’t stop until the she hit the wall behind her, and Raph cracked the joints in his hands.

He didn’t get to do any more than that; she kicked the ground with her legs, sending sand on Raph. Raph put his hand up to shield his eyes, but it didn’t seem like the sand was aimed at his face. No, only his hands and legs, full of scratches, got hit. And it didn’t take long for him to realize the reason.

“Son of a-“, he gasped when the sand made his wounds sting. Brushing the sand away only agitated the wounds, increasing his discomfort. His attention hadn’t been away from her for longer than few seconds, but suddenly her claws were pressed against his throat.

“I’m giving you a chance to yield, stranger”, she smirked into his ear, pressing her claws against him and making the soft skin bleed. “Do that or die.”

“Sorry”, Raph said. “I can’t do either.”

He grabbed her arm just as she pressed her claws deeper, tearing her away from him and slamming her to the ground, not letting go. He almost got an open throat in the process, feeling how blood trickled down his neck, but with the girl in his grip she couldn’t do anything.

Well, she could scratch, which was exactly what she was doing; desperately trying to get away and marking Raphael’s arms with long but shallow wounds.

“Damnit, stop it already!” Raph yelled, grabbing her other arm as well. “Since you gave me an option, I’ll do the same to you.” He was hurting all over, so he’d rather give her a payback, but the sooner this was over, the better. “So yield!”

“No! What I said in the beginning was _true_ ; I don’t want to do this anymore”, she growled. They both knew she wasn’t strong enough to get free. “Just end me!”

“You can get away from here”, Raph growled back. “You have to fight for it, but you can.”

Raph kicked her legs from under her, forcing her on her knees. The moment her knees hit the ground her body disappeared. It counted as a yield.

Raph felt exhausted even though he hadn’t really moved around that much. His skin hurt everywhere and the earlier need to fight had faded. He’d withstand pain any day, but this annoying stinging was almost worse. He moved his arm around a bit, wincing at the sensation it caused. He touched his neck; the wound was bleeding, but the cut hadn’t been as deep as he’d thought. Had the other scratches been bleeding he’d be worried about the blood-loss, but he came to the conclusion none of them were too bad.

He could ignore the pain if he’d just get to punch something.

Leonardo stood silently in front of the window, arms crossed over his chest.

“Leo, you’re a horrible commentator!” Mikey whined, leaving Don alone for a moment in order to come and see for himself. They saw how Raph managed the catch the girl, and Mikey cheered. He turned to Leo when he didn’t react at all.

“Come on Leo, he won”, Mikey said. “Don’t look so grim.”

“We have no idea what’s coming next”, Leo said with a stern face. “Those wounds are going to slow him down.”

“Wounds?” Don asked, trying to get up, but Mikey hurried back to his side to stop him.

“More like scratches”, Mikey corrected his brother. “At least they don’t look that bad from here, but there are a lot of them… even Klunk couldn’t make him look that bad.”

Mentioning Klunk made Mikey feel homesick, but he tried pushing it away. They could worry about getting home later.

“Leo’s right, if there are a lot of them, they’re going to slow him down”, Don said, sounding worried. He wanted to see, but could hardly keep his eyes open. Mikey sat next to Don, lifting his head onto his lap to make him feel more comfortable.

“Well, at leat he looks kind of badass with them”, Mikey chuckled, trying to take Don’s mind away from the worrying. “It’ll help him to maintain his _I’m a tough guy_ -look. Unless I tell everyone he got them from Klunk.”

Raph had hoped for a tougher opponent, and his wish was granted. The next guy was _big_. A bit too big.

He was a humanoid as well, but had a long, dragging tail which looked like it was just a big rock. His legs were thick, almost like two trees. He was obviously very slow, but getting hit by those arms, or that tail- or pretty much by anything the guy had wouldn’t be good. Raph got into position, waiting for his opponent to stomp closer. Because that’s how he walked; by slowly stomping.

The enemy eyed him, sighing dramatically. “Why must they always be so small? So hard to catch… I don’t like boring the audience”, he spoke with a deep voice. “So be good and come here.”

“Don’t worry, I will”, Raph growled. First he just had to think of how to beat this… tank. This was a _battle arena_ for _battling_! Why did he have to think about how to defeat his enemies when they could’ve just _fought_? Fists against fists, not fists against this… rock. Yeah, no way his fists would do any good against him.

Still, he had to try. He lunged, having to jump high in order to even hit his torso. And like he expected, hitting him felt like hitting a rock. He hissed in pain, easily dodging the enemy’s swing and putting some distance between them again.

“Don’t make this so difficult”, the enemy spoke, already moving towards him. But he was so slow that Raph could just walk in order to maintain the distance. Now, if he could just figure out what to do…

“Well? What’s the next guy look like?” Mikey asked, unable to move to the window anymore, since Don was half asleep on his lap.

“Big”, Leo said. “Raph can’t hit him.”

“Well, he’s not going to like that”, Mikey answered, twirling the end of Don’s mask around his finger.

Leo didn’t answer. He had no idea how Raphael could beat his opponent, he didn’t seem to have any weak spots. He was slow, but that was about it. Raph couldn’t even try to make him run against the walls like Don had done with his opponent. But what worried him the most was the fact that Raph would _not_ surrender, even if someone was beating him into a pulp. Why did he have to be the last one?

Raph was running out of patience; they were just walking around, and the audience was booing again. He had to try something. He slowed down, waiting for the enemy to catch up.

“Getting tired?” the rock taunted, swinging his massive fist. Raphael easily jumped on top of the slow fist, using it to climb on his shoulder. He didn’t seem to like that, trying to grab him. Raph avoided him easily again, pressing his arm against his throat, trying to cut out his airway.

But even his neck seemed to be made out of rock, and the opponent only laughed. No matter how Raph pulled it was no use, he couldn’t even strangle him, he-

He felt an arm around his shell, realizing with a sinking feeling he hadn’t paid enough attention. Strong fingers draped around him, bringing him in front of the opponent’s face. Raph struggled, punching the hand holding him. It only made his fingers hurt and the enemy laugh.

“You call this a fair fight, huh?” Raph yelled out in frustration, glaring at his opponent.

He just shrugged. “You tried to strangle me.”

“What else could I do? You’re made out of rock!”

He laughed again, gripping Raph a bit harder. Raph grunted, feeling how his ribs protested the pressure around him.

He saw how the enemy raised his other hand and turned it into a fist, and could do nothing to prevent him from punching him. It felt like getting hit by a giant rock – literally. Not like Raphael often got hit by rocks, but yeah, this was how he definitely would’ve imagined what getting hit by a boulder would feel like. Stars danced in his eyes and his face felt numb, and he must’ve bitten his tongue since he tasted blood.

He expected his opponent to throw him to the ground or something, but as he lifted his head, refusing to just give up even though nausea washed over him, he saw the fist coming towards him again. His vision swam as he was punched again and he spat blood, closing his eyes from the pain. He didn’t raise his head again.

Leo hit the window, growling loudly. His eyes scanned the room again – nothing, nothing he could use, no one he could _beg_ to let him fight in his brothers stead – he needed to get out there, at this point Raph couldn’t even yield even if he wanted to, the guy would just beat him until–

He punched the window again, again and again, finally leaving bloody marks on it as his knuckles started to bleed, but didn’t stop before Mikey was there to pull him away.

“Leo! What’s going-“, Mikey asked while holding him in place, turning his attention to the at the arena. His grip on Leo loosened and Leo leaned back against the window, while Mikey seemed to be frozen in place. His eyes widened with horror and he couldn’t tear his eyes away while the opponent hit Raphael time after time. Leo cursed under his breath.

“Raph”, Mikey whispered against the cold, bloodied window. Tears burned his eyes as he numbly watched.

“What’s happening?” Don asked, wide awake now and trying to get up again. He managed to sit, but thanks to his leg he couldn’t get up. Leo and Mikey were silent now, their postures defeated; Don felt dread wash over him. He forced himself up, desperately wanting to know what was going on, ignoring the pain as he limped towards the window.

He arrived just in time to see how Raphael got smacked against the arena’s wall, blood drippling to the ground. Don felt like he suddenly lost the ability to breath- this couldn’t be real. Raph couldn’t-

Just like Mikey, he couldn’t tear his eyes away as Raphael’s limp body received a hit after hit, the audience cheering. The cheering was getting a bit quieter, though; Raph had clearly been unconscious for a while, so they were getting bored. No sense in watching someone beat up a dead body.

Leonardo seemed to pull himself together since he pulled Mikey away from the window, pressing his head against his plastron and shielding him from the sight. Mikey sobbed.


	4. Chapter 4

Raph was smacked against the wall one more time before the opponent let him go. His limp body slid down to the ground, and like some miracle, his knees hit the ground before the rest of his body. Even though he wasn’t conscious his knees hit the ground, and that counted as yielding. The audience cheered for the brutal kill, continuing the cheering even after his body disappeared.

Mikey was the first one shakily kneeling next to Raph as his body appeared into the room. Leo wasn’t far behind, helping Don since his leg was giving up under him. Michelangelo was carefully lifting Raph’s head and wiping the blood away ever so gently.

“Raph”, Mikey gasped, tears still on his cheeks. Leo placed his hand on the side of Raphael’s neck, letting out a shaky breath when he found a weak pulse. His breathing was shallow, but it was there. Leo felt suddenly exhausted – he hadn’t seen Raphael’s knees hit the ground, he had thought the reason he was brought here was because he–

He shook the thought away, helping Don to sit down better. Don was in pain, he could tell by the way he was gritting his teeth, but he did his best to hide it because he help too. Leo grabbed Raphael’s hand tightly while Don was examining his face, wiping the blood away with a piece of the curtain. They had torn the whole curtain down, and most of it had already been used.

“How bad is it?” Leo asked carefully, placing his other hand on Mikey’s shoulder while he wiped his eyes with the back of his hands.

“Don’t know yet”, Don said quietly. He was still just as shocked, relieved of course, but he knew he wouldn’t be letting his brothers out of sight for a long time after this. It felt a bit comforting to think about all this being over, he trusted Leo to defeat the rest of their opponents. But if Raph had come back in this condition, then how would Leo-?

“I need to wake him up and keep an eye on him, he’s definitely got a wicked concussion, I just hope it isn’t more than that.“

“Number 5.”

Both Don and Mikey stiffened, looking at Leo. Leo ignored them, not doing anything to move, just held Raphael’s hand in his and looked at his bloody and battered face.

“He’s going to be in a lot of pain when he wakes up”, Leo said.

“I know, but I need to know how bad it is”, Don sighed. Leo let go of Raph’s hand but didn’t take his eyes away.

“Raph”, Don called, returning his attention back to him and carefully touching his face. Both Mikey and Leo watched, when suddenly Leo yelped, doubling over as an electric shock shot through his body. It wasn’t just a small zap; after it was over his muscles felt sore and he was gasping for air.

“Leo!” Mikey yelped, reaching for him, but Leo swatted his hands away.

“ _Don’t touch me_ ”, he hissed, still recovering from the pain. Mikey drew his hands back with a hurt look, and Leo swallowed, holding his breath for a moment before speaking in a softer tone. “Sorry. If you touch me, you could get hurt, too”, he explained.

“I didn’t know it’d start so soon”, Don said, referring to the shock. He lowered his head. “You have to go”, he continued, even though he wanted everything but that. They had all completely forgotten about the shocks that would occur if a battler didn’t enter the arena, and definitely didn’t want Leo to get another one of those. Leo had to go, but after seeing what their opponent had done to Raph, sending Leo there was…

Leonardo hated to leave without seeing Raph awake. He also didn’t want to leave Don and Mikey alone, Don was still badly hurt and Mikey was obviously still in a shock- but he had to.

“Just try to wake him up”, Leo said, getting up.

“Please be careful”, he heard Mikey whisper, and his chest ached when he looked into Michelangelo’s big, pleading eyes. Sudden rage filled him as he looked at his hurt brothers, but Leo didn’t let it show.

“I will”, he promised, touching Mikey’s shoulder briefly before leaving. Before he stepped out of the door he glanced back, meeting Don’s worried eyes. The door closed.

The sandy ground of the arena had been colored red, and in the middle of it all, the enemy waited patiently. His other arm had red splatters on it; Raphael’s drying blood.

Emotions swirled inside him; the feeling of uselessness and anger as he had watched his brothers get hurt one after one, the hurt he had felt when he had thought he’d lost one of them.

And he still could. He didn’t know if Raphael would even wake up. This had to end fast so he could get back to them, to get them proper help.

He walked towards the enemy with confident steps, not caring about the blood. He still didn’t know how to beat him, but the hatred burned his insides; he couldn’t wait any longer. He really didn’t care that he was clearly disadvantaged. He recognized this feeling from a long time ago, back when he had been weighted down by his failures, always blaming himself is his family got hurt. He had burned with emotion before the self-hatred had wiped everything away, leaving him obsessed with training himself to be better. He had fought his enemies without emotion to avoid failure, and it had often come to the point where he hadn’t known when to stop, striking his already fallen enemies over and over again. He felt a bang in his chest when he remembered how his brothers had sometimes had to drag him away from the enemy, saying _it’s over, Leo, they’re finished._ He had eventually learned how to forgive himself.

But now he felt like he was back in the starting point. He had watched his brothers get hurt, even though he knew there hadn’t been anything he could’ve done to help. But he had just _watched_. How could he forgive himself for something like that?

How could he forgive the _enemy_?

“What’s this? Didn’t I just beat you?” the opponent asked, eyeing the turtle that looked almost identical to his previous opponent, amusement in his voice. “Doesn’t matter, though. I’ll gladly do it again.”

Leo broke into a run, avoiding a punch that would’ve sent his easily unconscious. He used the same tactic Raphael had used, jumping on top of the enemy’s giant hand and climbing behind his head. He knew that this had been how Raph got caught, so he paid attention to dodge the arm that was trying to grab him. When the rock couldn’t grab the turtle he made a frustrated noise, but kept trying to catch him.

Leo swung himself on the side of his head, punching him in the eye with a quick move. But his opponent wasn’t stupid; he expected Leo to go for his eyes, so he closed them just before the fist connected. Even his eyelids seemed to be made out of hard material. Leo hissed when pain shot from his fist; his knuckles were already bloody and torn from punching the window earlier.

The rock laughed, trying to grab him again. Leo jumped away, landing easily back onto the ground. He’d simply study him from afar to find a weak spot. The only downside was that he had already studied him during Raph’s fight, but hadn’t found anything to use against him. But he had to have at least one weak spot. He had to.

The rock came after him, stomping as slowly as before. They circled each other, and Leo paid no attention the booing of the audience. But it seemed to matter to his opponent; he noticed how he tried to walk faster.

“C’mon, let me catch you already. I promise to knock you out fast this time.”

How to beat a rock with just his bare hands? He still had no idea how Raph was doing. For all he knew he could be getting worse, and Don and Mikey couldn’t do anything but watch helplessly.

He was wasting time- no, he was wasting Raphael’s _life_.

Leonardo sprinted again, getting easily behind his enemy who only seemed to be glad that something was happening again. Leo kicked the back of his knees, but no weak spot there, either. Not like he had expected there to be, but what could he do?

His posture was already starting to crack; _emotionless_ , yeah right. He was starting to be desperate, and his emotions were scratching at the walls of the prison he had locked them into. But he knew that by becoming impatient Raph had gotten caught; he couldn’t afford to have emotions. He had to keep them in check. A real warrior wouldn’t let his emotions get the best of him.

“You know”, the rock spoke. “I think I changed my mind. I’m going to kill you nice and slow since I didn’t get to do that to the other one.”

Leo growled. “Shut up”, he warned.

“Oh? You’re mad? He important to you?”

‘ _Oh’_ , Leo thought, ‘ _you have no idea_.’

“Since you’re not letting me catch you, I gotta entertain myself some way. How about I tell you how satisfying it was to finally grab the other creature, to feel how he squirmed- but even better was to-“

“Shut up!” Leo repeated, punching the side of the enemy’s leg. He jumped to get away before the rock could have time to hit him, but to his horror he jumped into the wrong direction, standing right where the fist would hit him.

The force knocked him away from the opponent, sending him down on his shell, the air knocked out of him. How? How had he been so wrong about the distance? Stars danced in his eyes and he could hear the enemy getting closer, but all he could think about was that he had jumped into the wrong direction. He laughed, surprised at the sound. Must’ve been quite a punch if he was laughing. His vision spun.

Leo rolled over onto his plastron, finally able to breathe again. He got up, jumping away just in time; a few seconds later and he would’ve been stomped by the huge leg.

The rock swayed a bit as he put his leg down. And Leo realized where the weak spot was.

He started running again, but had to stop once in a while to hold his head because what did he expect after getting hit by a rock? His head hurt in a way it hadn’t ever before, and he couldn’t imagine how Raph would feel when he wakes up. _If_ he wakes up.

As he ran, he stumbled occasionally, almost falling over a few times. He was glancing over his shoulder every once in a while, hurrying his steps every time he saw the rock getting closer. This seemed to amuse the rock.

“So afraid after just one punch”, he sounded pleased. “Let me make you fear _more_.”

Finally Leo didn’t just stumble, but fell completely down on his knees. He tried to push himself up, but couldn’t. Panicking, he looked behind him, seeing the rock getting closer. The rock was laughing, already lifting his leg to stomp on him.

Don was still trying to get Raph to wake up, even though he kind of didn’t want to. He couldn’t imagine the pain Raph would be in, and they had no painkillers. So he didn’t really put any effort into trying to wake Raph up; what did it matter anyways? Right now, he couldn’t do anything to help him. It would be kinder to let him stay dead to the world for a while. He just kept a close eye to his pulse and breathing.

Mikey had moved to the window, although he kept on coming back to Raph, just to touch him briefly. There wasn’t really anything else he could do, and Leo’s fight wasn’t really going anywhere either, so he had time to check on him. Besides, he needed the constant reminders that Raphael was really there, still breathing.

But Mikey was standing at the window now, trying to ignore the blood Leo had left on it. He was gripping the windowsill, gasping when Leo fell down. He understood why Leo had been so quiet when he had wanted him to report what was going on when Raph had been fighting. Don was now expecting the same from him, but the words got stuck in his throat.

“Leo’s on the ground”, Mikey managed to squeak. “He’s going to get crushed!”

The leg came down hard, and Leo dodged at the last moment. The stumbling and the fearful looks he had sent behind him, alongside the falling itself had all been fake. He lunged, pushing the raised leg with all his weight. Dread washed over him; the opponent wasn’t moving an inch. He had been wrong, again. Even this wouldn’t work.

But he held on, pushing with all his strength. And the leg moved, slowly, taking the rock off balance and sending him hard onto the ground. Leo jumped away, not wanting to be crushed under the heavy body.

His enemy said nothing, just stayed on the ground. Didn’t even try to get up. Leo eyed him warily before moving a bit closer, careful to not come too close to his hands.

“Bravo, bravo”, the rock said, not sounding impressed. “You got me down. So? What are you going to do now?”

With a sinking feeling Leo realized he couldn’t answer that. He had no idea what to do next. He could kick and punch all he wanted, but nothing would have an effect on this guy. His shoulders slumped.

“The second best part was to see him realize”, the guy continued his taunting from where he had left earlier, enjoying his opponent’s defeated posture. He sounded careless even though he was on his back on the ground; he knew the turtle couldn’t hurt him. “He realized he would die. Too bad I didn’t actually get to see it, but guess he’s doing that right now in the waiting room.”

Leo could feel himself starting to shake. He was right. He was right, Raph was dying and he was helping this guy do it by wasting time. He laughed again. The stress was too much. He had managed to get his enemy down on the ground, yet he still couldn’t do anything. The clock was ticking. He couldn’t beat this guy and it was too much.

“And the best part… you know, there’s nothing quite like the crack of a skull.”

Something snapped. The headache he had gotten from the punch seemed to fill his head, making his ears ring. This… this _monster_ had beaten his brother to death and Leo was filled with understanding. He had failed. Raph was _dead_ and his killer was rubbing it into his face.

Leo bent down, dipping his fingers into the sand. Now that he paid attention to it, it actually felt nice. It was soft, but not soft enough to make their feet sink into it. He easily picked his hands full of the soft sand, letting the grains fall from between his fingers as he walked closer to the enemy. The rock lazily glanced at him, still having that confident, pleased smile on his face. Leo stopped when he was only inches away from the guy’s face, and the only reason the rock wasn’t trying to catch him was because he was curious.

Leo stared down at him, waiting. The rock opened his mouth to say something, and that’s when Leo moved.

He grabbed the guy’s jaw, holding it open as he stuffed sand into his mouth. Again and again, he grabbed more sand, stuffing his mouth full and using all his strength to hold his mouth wide open. The rock was too shocked to realize what was happening, at first, but tried to spit the sand away, tried to close his mouth, everything- but Leo saw red, literally, saw Raphael’s mask, Raphael’s blood-

The rock finally realized to use his hands, punching Leo away. He flew through the air, again, but this time he landed on his feet. The punch had only hit his side, making it throb, but it didn’t slow him down and he was back in a flash, so fast the rock hadn’t gotten even half of the sand out of his mouth before Leo was holding his jaw open again, pushing his hand into his mouth to prevent him from spitting out the sand, preventing him from breathing.

The rock tried to speak but had its mouth full of sand, able to only mumble. Leo could still catch some of the mumbled words like _stop_ , _please_ , even _I yield_ , but he kept his hand still. He listened to the gurgling as his enemy choked below him, hearing nothing but his death rattle.

“ _Murderer_ ”, he said coldly, knowing soon he’d be no better. It wasn’t like he hadn’t killed before.

Watching the life leave the rock’s eyes didn’t make him feel anything. He only felt pleasantly numb, knowing he was one step closer to getting back to his brothers. When the rock’s limb body disappeared from under him he slumped a little, holding his head in his hands. What if it was really true? What if Raph was dead?

It couldn’t be. He would know, _somehow_ , somehow he would know if he had. He was slowly starting to realize what he had done and he looked down at his hands, covered in spit and sand. He was shaking again.

Yet he couldn’t feel any regret.

There was a loud noise surrounding him and he glanced up, realizing it was the audience. He looked around him in panic, trying to spot the next enemy they were cheering for, but couldn’t see anyone. He realized that the audience was cheering for him.

They didn’t even know his name and they were cheering, already waving blue flags exactly the color of his mask. Leo felt disgusted.

Inside the waiting room Mikey stood silent once again, slowly backing away from the window. He walked towards Don who was looking at him anxiously, waiting to hear what was going on, why Mikey wore no expression- Mikey kneeled next to Don, wrapping his arms around him and burying his face against him.

“This is so _crazy_ ”, Mikey managed to say while Don petted his shell, still confused. “Why does this stuff always happen to us…”

“What happened?” Don asked, worry and impatience growing inside him since Mikey wasn’t saying anything. He knew Leo hadn’t lost or wasn’t getting beaten like Raph or Mikey’s reaction would’ve been definitely different. But he couldn’t stop images of badly hurt Leo from entering his mind and he-

Mikey hugged him tighter, taking him back from his thoughts.

“He won”, Mike said quietly. “By choking him. With sand.”

Don couldn’t imagine how Leo had managed to do it, and by Mikey’s reaction, maybe he didn’t want to. He only pitied the enemies getting on Leo’s way when someone had hurt his family. It filled him with a warm safety knowing Leo would always look after them, but sometimes Leo… went too far. To him, there probably wasn’t such a thing as “going too far” if it meant his family would be safe, and Don wouldn’t complain as long as Leo, too, would be safe. But sometimes his behavior worried him. Don had seen the expression Leo had worn before he left, full of guilt and heavy with responsibility, which wasn’t unusual for him. But he had also seen the rage and he just hoped Leo could handle his emotions out there.

Leo was always the one in control, but they had seen what happens when the dam finally breaks. And when it breaks, he wasn’t only a threat for his enemies; he became a threat to himself as well.

The next and the last enemy appeared. It was finally the two eldest of their groups, and the moment Leo saw his opponent he knew he wouldn’t walk away alive.

His enemy was a bug-like creature, walking with two lanky legs. It was purple, had a pair of wings on its back and two nasty fangs were peeking from its mouth. That was nothing, though. What took Leo’s attention were the arms, or more like the lack of them. Instead of hands it had two long, sharp scythe-like claws. Leo realized he had laughed again, this time just because it was ridiculous how over this was for him.

 

Leo had no weapons, but this thing literally had weapons for hands. The bug looked fast; Leo could land a punch, maybe, but the moment his fist would connect with _that_ a scythe would cut him neatly in half. How was he even expected to fight something like this with just his bare hands?

The audience cheered louder, this time clearly for the bug-creature. Leo realized that they _didn’t_ expect him to fight; well, maybe struggle a bit, but the audience wanted violence, cruelty and blood. It didn’t matter how they’d get it, they just wanted it. There was no fairness or justice here.

Leo raised his fists, taking a deep breath. He would go down, but he wouldn’t go down without a fight.

The bug was stretching its legs, showing off its nasty row of teeth. It had no worries here; it never lost. It was the predator and everyone else was its prey. It dragged its sharp claws together, and Leo noticed that the other claw wasn’t as sharp as the other one. Pieces had come off of it and the head was almost dull. In the right angle it was still just as deadly, but Leo knew that if the bug’s claws had a weakness, the other claw was it. Even though he’d rather get a clean cut from the sharp claw rather than get on the way of the rugged blade, he knew he’d need to attack from the rugged side. He’d just have to avoid getting hit.

But if he couldn’t avoid getting hit, the battered claw would definitely make his end slower than the sharp one would.

The bug jumped a bit closer, using its wings to let it jump higher. Again, just how unfair was this? Even if Leo had a chance, the bug could just avoid him by flying. Leo could see that’s its wings were a bit battered, so somebody had tried taking it down that way. That would probably be what he should aim for, too, but as he watched the opponent get closer, his shoulders slumped once more. The claws were even huger up close, and the bug was a bit taller than him. The swift movements confirmed his fears of it being fast.

It didn’t seem to be able to speak; it occasionally let out a scratchy sound, eyeing its prey with hungry eyes.

“Come on, then”, Leo said quietly. “I have brothers to get back to.”

Dodging the claws wasn’t hard, at first. They had fallen into a game of cat-and-mouse, the bug slashing as Leo dodged out of the way. Leo knew he would be the first to get tired; he was starting to feel the punches received from the earlier enemy, and the day hadn’t exactly been very relaxing. His body was tired, and when he received the first cut he realized the bug was just playing, only testing the waters. Just enjoying the feeling of chasing someone. He swallowed hard, avoiding another swipe – he’d just have to keep the bug entertained so it wouldn’t want to instantly rip him apart. But if this’d continue the bug would grow impatient, and Leo had to think. How to beat the bug quick and avoid the claws? He had no idea how fragile the wings were, but they looked easy to break. Just get behind and grab them and the bug would be much slower. Hopefully.

Raph stirred, but his left eye was swollen shut, so he could only see with his right one. What he saw was Don worriedly smiling down at him, but he couldn’t concentrate on that- insane pain shot through his head, making him nauseous. He let out a long, pained groan, shutting his eye.

“Take it easy”, Don said in a low voice, not wanting to agitate the hellish headache Raph had woken up to. “I’m sorry I can’t do anything for the pain.”

It took a moment for him to understand what his brother had said, but eventually he lifted his hand to sway it like this was nothing. Bad move, though; everything seemed to hurt and he groaned again. A long list of curse-words left his mouth, and Mikey, who had joined them from the window, chuckled lightly. Long-awaited relief swept through both him and Don. Hearing Raph’s voice, even if he was slurring and cursing, was comforting.

“Apart from the, uh, headache, how’re you feeling?” Don asked carefully.

Raphael just grumbled, cracking his eye open again and glaring. “What’d you think.”

“Do you remember who we are? You took quite a blow”, Mikey asked, unable to hold himself back and not to joke. With Raphael awake and Leo holding his ground with the last opponent he was starting to feel a bit better.

“Is your vision alright, Raph? How many fingers am I holding up?” Don asked, bringing his hand in front of Raph’s face and holding up two fingers. Raph was glaring at Mike, but moved his eye to focus on Don’s hand. He saw four fingers, but knew that wasn’t possible, so he only groaned.

“Alright, just rest”, Don said, checking that any of Raph’s wounds weren’t bleeding again. After that he leaned against the wall, trying to get his hurt leg into a more comfortable position. He hadn’t really had time to look at it himself, and now he had the time since there wasn’t anything he could do for Raph. But he felt too tired, relieved that Raph would recover, but tired.

“You okay, Don?” Mikey asked, moving from Raph to Don’s side.

“I think so”, Don said, but didn’t take his eyes away from his leg. The constant throbbing reminded him that walking would be difficult for a long time. “How’s your side?”

“It’s better”, Mikey said, already getting up. He had been moving from his brothers to the window countless times now, and the movement hadn’t really done any good to the wound, but his brothers were worse than him, so he didn’t want to complain. He moved to the window, seeing how Leo ducked under the bug and made a grab for the wings.

Leo’s left hand touched the wing, surprising him how firm yet fragile they felt. They had to be strong to carry such and creature, but they’d still easily break. Before he even managed to wrap his fingers around it the wings suddenly came to life, vibrating with such a force that the skin of Leo’s hand was immediately torn, making him yelp in surprise and pain. He threw himself backwards to get away, falling on his shell and holding his now bleeding hand. Blood flowed on his plastron and Leo realized the edges of the wings had given him deep cuts, making the hand almost useless. He gritted his teeth as his hand throbbed, and panic swept over him when the bug turned to him. There was nothing on its face, no arrogance, only the hunter’s hunger. Nothing agitated hunger like seeing the prey on its back, bleeding.

Leo threw himself on his plastron, using his uninjured hand to haul himself up. He jumped away just as the claw struck the ground, hurrying to get away. But the bug followed him with ease, and Leo couldn’t get enough distance between them.

Se he turned around, facing the opponent. He waited, waited- and in the last moment he dodged to the side, making the bug strike the ground again. As it was yanking its claw back up Leo threw himself against the bug’s side, colliding hard, but not hard enough to make the creature fall. It was off-balance, trying to swipe at him again, but Leo dodged under the blade, sending a kick to its knee. The knee gave away, making the bug cry out and fall. But it fell in the wrong angle, and even as it fell, it swiped.

Blood gushed out of Leo’s shoulder, the blade cutting the skin just above his plastron. Leo cried out – it was the dull blade, and as it moved in the wound, the rugged surface deepened the unclean cut before getting stuck in the flesh. For a moment hot pain was all he registered, but after it ceased he grabbed the blade with shaking hands. He didn’t try to move it away; he just held it still so it couldn’t move. He was afraid the pain would make him pass out if he tried to pull it out.

He also feared the cut was too deep, bleeding him right out – but no, it bled, but not too much. Adrenaline was coursing through him, slowly making the pain fade into the back of his mind, and he readied himself to yank the blade out. But he didn’t have the time to do that – the bug did it itself, making him cry out again as the blade left the wound. Leo wanted nothing but to fall on his knees and held the bleeding shoulder, but before the bug could withdraw its claw completely, Leo grabbed it, bringing it back closer to him. He saw how the bug had its other claw already moving, already making a swipe at his throat – and he held up the claw he was holding, shielding himself with it and making the bug cut its own claw off in one, swift move.

It shrieked in pain, thrashing under him, blindly slashing with its remaining claw and Leo stumbled to get away, still holding the bloody claw that had cut off. Despite the pain the bug  was in it lunged, taking him by surprise as its claw sank straight into Leo’s already wounded shoulder, making him scream in pain. With its claw in his flesh it dragged Leo closer, making him yell again as the pain became worse. He saw stars, could only hear his heart beating in his ears, reminding him how it pumped blood out of him- He tried to grab the claw dragging him, realizing he was still holding the claw that had gotten cut-off, and he forced himself to focus. The bug had dragged him closer, its mouth open to taste him, but Leo slashed with the claw he was holding, cutting the bugs stomach. Blood splattered to the ground and the bug was shrieking again, trying to get away and dragging its claw out of Leo’s shoulder in the process, leaving Leo blind with pain. The bug was back on the ground, trashing its legs as it bled.

Leonardo realized he was on his knees, adrenaline already leaving him. But the bug was still voicing its pain, twitching in agony, and Leo dragged himself back to his feet. He raised the claw, feeling pity that it wasn’t the sharp one, and sank it into the bug’s chest. Its movements ceased into tiny twitches, and just in case, Leo moved the claw in the wound, making more blood sweep out, ending the creature’s life faster.

Leo didn’t believe anyone came to this battle by their own free will, even if they enjoyed fighting. But he could only hope he had done the right thing by ending the bug’s life, even if it hadn’t been pretty. At least it had been quick. He collapsed, not able to let go of the claw. The bug’s body disappeared, leaving him alone in a pool of blood.

Mikey hadn’t watched the rest – he had been glued to the window when the claw had sunk into his brother’s shoulder, but when Leo managed to bury the claw into its chest, it was clear he had won and he didn’t want to watch the gore anymore. With a tired expression he turned to Don, smiling just a bit, but there wasn’t anything like happiness on his face. Only tired relief that it was over.

Donatello understood, not asking how Leo had won – it was over and they were alive. Well, the next part would be to heal and to plan how to escape, and all of that had to be done in just one month. And he didn’t even how badly Leo had gotten hurt out there, and he didn’t dare to ask Mikey. They’d see him in just a bit, when Leo would get teleported here-

A door appeared into the wall of the room and guards stomped in, pointing loaded guns at them.

Exhausted – that’s what Leo was. He was well aware that his shoulder was bleeding heavily, but the lack of adrenaline made him sleepy. His head drooped and he swayed, falling forwards but catching himself with his good arm. He was shaking.

And the audience was going wild again, he noted with mild interest. With a foggy mind he tried to think – it was a good thing, right? They had liked what they had seen, so he’d get spared.

“I don’t think we need a vote – it’s pretty clear we’ll be seeing you again”, the announcer’s voice appeared, echoing through the arena. He didn’t sound too excited, speaking in his usual dull voice.

Leonardo lifted his head a bit, seeing the audience as a distant blur. He was glad it was over, but he didn’t feel victorious at all. Don, or at least Mikey had probably watched him fight. He didn’t know what his brothers had felt watching him kill his opponents, and didn’t really want to think about it. He desperately wanted to get back to them, to know that Raph was alright, but at the same time, he felt shame. He shouldn’t have let Mike see anything like that, he should’ve controlled himself-

“Well, then, get up – right this way”, the announcer’s loud voice pierced his thoughts, and Leo saw that a door had opened on the side of the arena. “If you can walk, that is. Do you need a medic?”

“I want my brothers”, Leo said, voice hoarse.

“Oh, those other three? I apologize, but they have been sent to be executed, the audience wasn’t impressed with them-“

The rest of his voice drowned, the sounds of the audience drowned – there was a loud ringing his head, an overwhelming pain growing inside his chest not caused by his wounds.

“What? No! No, you can’t!” Leo said, struggling to get on his feet, coating the ground red as he moved. “Take me to them!”

“I can’t, they’re already-“

Leonardo wasn’t thinking; he just realized he still had the claw, and he brought it up, pressing it against his throat, accidently so hard he broke the skin.

“ _You won’t have your winner_ ”, Leo growled. The audience had gone silent; they weren’t able to hear what Leo was saying, but they were able to see him.

He had no idea if the announcer cared, if the audience cared. Everyone, even their winners, could be replaced. He realized that the audience would just be excited that if he’d cut his throat open, after all, all they wanted was blood.

Besides, it had been luck he had won. He knew that if there had been even one more opponent after this he would’ve lost and he’d be treated the same way his brothers had.

A long silence fell on the arena, and Leo started trembling again. He was dizzy and he knew he couldn’t even stand for much longer.

“…Fine”, the narrator finally said, making Leo finally let go of the claw and almost fall with it. Relief washed over him, and just standing took more strength that he had. Still, he forced himself to move, holding his battered arm as he walked towards the door leading him out of the bloody arena, having to trust the announcer’s word.

The narrator’s tone had turned cold when he had agreed, and Leo had a feeling this would bite him back in the future, but right now, he didn’t care. He had gotten his brothers out of the game and that was all that mattered.

He entered some kind of a corridor, and the door behind him closed, cutting of the audience’s voices. The light was dim, and before his eyes could get used to the dark, an electric shock went through him, the same kind he had received back in the waiting room, and he doubled over, falling on his knees.

A surprised gasp was all that let out, even though the sudden movement made the pain is shoulder radiate to the whole arm. He didn’t have the strength to keep himself up, so he let himself fall on his side, eyes squeezed shut as his muscles spasmed from the volume of the shock.

After it was over he concentrated on just breathing, feeling how his shoulder still bled. He opened his eyes, but his vision swam and he realized he’d pass out soon. There was movement in the air, and Leo gathered his strength to lift his head. A tiny machine, resembling something like a radio, was floating in the air. Leo realized the narrator wasn’t a person; it was this machine without a face, but the red light blinking in the middle of it felt like an eye that was staring right through him.

It floated closer, hovering right in front of his face. Leo tried to keep his eyes on it, but his world was slowly turning grey and his head fell back against the cold floor.

“I have to say”, a cold, mechanic voice said before the darkness swallowed the turtle. “By sparing your brothers you’ve made the rest of their short lives a _misery_.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, it's been a long time since I've updated. Hopefully I'll be able to update sooner from now on!

”I just wished we hadn’t gotten rid of the old rules – back then, you had to exit the arena on your own!” Leo woke up to the heated voice of the announcer. He realized he was still lying on his side, but not in the corridor where he had passed out. This was a tiny cell, and his hands had been tied behind his back. There was a low hum coming from behind him, so he figured it was some kind of an electric lock keeping his hands tied. He tried moving them, but there was no way he’d get free. The movement reminded him of his wounded shoulder, but it didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore, and a bandage was covering almost his whole arm. Well, otherwise he would’ve probably already bled out.

“If you had wounds, you had to tend to them on your own – if you bled to death, no winners!” the announcer was continuing, talking to himself.  “…Well, we didn’t have many winners back then – but who cares about them! We just took new prisoners!”

“You’re a machine”, Leo said weakly and the narrator turned towards him. “What would you understand about bleeding wounds, anyways?”

Even though it had no face, he could see – or feel – the machine’s anger. For a moment Leo feared he’d get another shock, so he tensed, but the shock didn’t come. Instead the narrator floated closer to the bars separating them, glaring at him with the red eye of his. 

“What you did back on the arena – it was unacceptable”, the machine hissed. “I would’ve just let you cut your throat, but I didn’t know how the audience would react, and I wasn’t feeling like finding out. Since you killed the… bug, they needed at least one winner.”

Leo didn’t answer, so the machine turned away and returned to the table it had been floating above earlier.

Leonardo eyed his surroundings. He was in a small room with just one cell and a table in the middle. There were no guards, just the two of them. Silence fell in the room, the only voice coming from the low hum of the electric lock around his hands.

“What are you going to do with my brothers?” Leo asked after a moment. The machine had made it clear it didn’t have anything good in mind for them, so he just hoped Don had already continued on their escape plan. They had started on it the moment they had been put into the prison, but the battle had come so soon they hadn’t had time to get to know their surroundings.

But they were hurt – Leo still didn’t know about Raph’s condition. Even if they had a plan, they probably couldn’t do anything but heal for a while.

“Well, I’m actually in the middle of the process of organizing the teams for the next battle”, the machine hummed. “The audience loves some additional bloodshed, so maybe sparing your brothers wasn’t such a bad idea after all.”

Leo grimaced, struggling against his bindings, but the pain was still there and he gave up. The position was painful enough even if he didn’t move; having his hands tied behind himself kept his shoulder in an uncomfortable angle, constantly putting pressure on the wound. He just hoped it wouldn’t reopen the wound.

“Other prisoners were watching the battle”, the narrator continued. “They saw the stunt you pulled. I’ve got a whole prison to keep under control – you think they won’t start getting some ideas after seeing that?”

The machine turned around once more, seeming agitated again. Apparently it wasn’t just a narrator – it was behind the whole game?

“They saw I let you get what you wanted”, the machine hovered close to the bars of the cell. Of course nobody had heard just what Leo had asked for, but it had been clear Leo had won the debate they had had. “They’re going to try to do the same, or something else just as annoying. All because of you.”

The tiny machine wouldn’t have been so intimidating had Leo not known his brother’s lives were in his hands. But he had already put all of them in the path of this machine’s wrath, and he shouldn’t make things worse for them, so he listened in silence.

“I have to make you an example, so everyone can see what happens when you try such a thing.”

They stared at each other for a moment until Leo dared to speak.

“Can I at least see my brothers?”

The machine scoffed, capable of sounding very human even though it was just a floating… radio-thing.

“You’ll see them”, it said. “On the arena.”

Leonardo narrowed his eyes, turning his head away. To go through the arena again… to see his brothers there… the thought alone made him sick. They needed to escape.

“That is…” the machine continued, “if they’ll survive for that long.”

 

* * *

 

All three of them had been violently removed from the waiting-room, even Raphael, who couldn’t even stand on his own. One of the guards had just thrown him over his shoulder, and even half-conscious Raph had put up a fight and would’ve probably gotten knocked out had Don not _commanded_ him to calm down. Don’s voice had been a mixture of pain and _anger_ , and the rareness of it had effectively put Raph in place. Don had been forced to walk with his useless leg so he was in pain and did not want Raph to get any more blows, a second concussion could be fatal. They could _not_ get injured any further or their escape would just be delayed, and Raphael had to understand that. But Don’s leg had not been in the condition to hold his weight, so he had eventually just collapsed and couldn’t get up even when the guard began kicking him.

“Get up”, the guard commanded, landing another kick against Don’s side as he tried to push himself up, even though it was clear he was trying his best to get up.

“Can’t you see he can’t walk?” Mikey, who had been silent so far, piped up and struggled against the guard holding him. “His leg is hurt!”

The guard holding him smacked him across the face, making him wince and fall silent. A low growl left Raph, but he was too tired to do much else, panting harshly out of frustration and exhaustion.

“Just carry him”, the guard holding Mikey snarled to the one kicking Don. “This’ll take forever otherwise. My shift ended ten minutes ago already.”

The other guard didn’t seem to like being ordered around, kicking Don one last time before he grabbed him and threw him over his shoulder, carrying him the same way Raph was carried.

“Don? You okay?” Mikey called, upon seeing how limp Don was, but received no answer. The guard smacked Mike again and he didn’t ask again.

Before entering the prison they were walked through a room where they were sprayed with water, and Mikey was glad that they could get the dried blood off of their skin; the only downside was that the water was cold, and the water only made the wounds hurt worse.

The cell they were put in wasn’t as horrible as Mikey had expected. It wasn’t very big, but it was clean and had actual mattresses. They were also left with some bandages, much to Mikey’s surprise.

When the guards left Mikey had to pretty much drag his brothers on the mattresses; Don had passed out, and Mikey didn’t know if he had been kicked to the head or if he had simply passed out because of the pain. Raph was falling in and out of consciousness, occasionally mumbling something incoherent and clearly in pain.

Mikey had dragged two of the mattresses together, and after Don and Raph were on them he tore the third mattress apart. The bandages they had been given were useful, but they weren’t enough for their wounds, so he needed some extra material. He carefully removed the pieces of the curtain they had used as bandages earlier, wincing when he saw the condition Don’s leg was in. He was kind of glad Don had passed out.

He used the bandages first re-bandaging Don’ leg and the deepest of Raphael’s cuts. He used the fabric torn from the mattress to wrap the other wounds, and the white fabric actually kind of looked like real bandages. He hoped they’d work like them.

After that he took a deep breath and leaned against the wall. All that was left was his own wound, which he had been ignoring pretty much ever since receiving it. Don had been able to stop the bleeding, but the fabric covering the wound was coated in blood and he knew he’d have to change it. Bracing for the pain he tore it away, quickly replacing the fabric. It wasn’t as painful as he had expected it to be, but the ache made him grit his teeth. He saved some of the fabric for later, since he had a feeling they wouldn’t get more of the real bandages in a long time. After he had done everything he could he moved closer to his siblings.

He buried both Don and Raph under blankets, making sure they’d be warm after the cold shower they had gotten. He wiggled himself in between them, careful to not touch their wounds.

As he listened to their steady breathing he touched the fabric Leo had wrapped around his hurt hand. The last time he had seen him he had been barely standing, covered in the blood of both himself and the enemy. Nobody had bothered to treat them, but Leo was the winner, so maybe it had been different for him? If not, he’d just-

No, no, they couldn’t just let their winner die, right? Even though his brothers were in pain and Mike felt like he was the responsible one now he felt better because they were here with him, so he couldn’t help but imagine Leo in a cell somewhere far away, suffering all alone.

 

* * *

 

Mikey didn’t realize he had fallen asleep until he was woken up by loud chattering. It took him a moment to remember where he was, and with alert he jumped up into a sitting-position, seeing how the door of the cell was open and other prisoners were lazily walking past. There was a bell ringing somewhere in the distance, and Mike realized it meant it was time for food. It was the only time the prisoners could walk freely outside their cells, and even then they could only go to the room where the food was served and then come back. If anyone started a fight or otherwise caused some commotion, they guards would immediately be on their throats. They had seen it during the short time they had been in the prison before the battle.

Mikey could hear them talking about “yesterday’s game”, meaning he had slept over the night and now it was already time for food. He was a bit surprised that he hadn’t been woken up by nightmares, but maybe his mind had been too tired to create them. Well, he wasn’t complaining about the lack of them.

He glanced at Raph, seeing he had been awake at some point since he had moved onto his other side, then moving his eyes to Don. He let out a startled yelp when he saw Don quietly staring up at him.

“Jeez, Don, don’t- I thought you were asleep”, Mikey held a hand over his chest, exhaling deeply.

“Sorry”, Don muttered sleepily, wincing as he moved into a more comfortable position. “I just woke up.”

“Yeah, right, you just wanted to scare me-“, Mikey’s sentence was interrupted when two prisoners stopped in front of their cell.

“Hey, look, it’s the turtle-creatures from yesterday’s battle.”

“Huh? Didn’t the third one kick the bucket?”

“Doesn’t seem to be far from that, heh.”

Both Don and Mikey felt uncomfortable under their gaze, tensing up. Mikey moved protectively a bit closer to Raph, since the strangers were talking about him.

“Rare to have yielders here. Don’t they usually get executed?”

“Yeah. Hey, you”, the prisoner spoke to Mikey, but Mikey didn’t answer, just looked at him warily.

“Want to do some trade? We have some painkillers and stuff. Looks like your pals could use them.”

The two prisoners weren’t looking for a fight, making Mikey’s face brighten. He moved the blanket away to get up, but Don grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t, Mikey”, he said quietly. “They’re probably just tricking you.”

“What? Why would they?” Mikey sounded genuinely surprised, yanking his hand away from Don and walking closer to the prisoners, thinking about how badly they needed those painkillers. Don cursed Mikey’s ability to see the good in everyone; he, too, wanted to believe that everyone had _some_ kindness in them, but this was a _prison_ , and Mikey had seemed to completely forgotten that. Don tried to move after him, but getting up was out of question. His leg would not support him. Despite the pain in his leg he leaned closer to Raph, shaking his shoulder to wake him up. He was the only one who could defend Mikey if that was needed.

“I don’t really have much with me right now, but I could-“, Mikey started as he walked closer, desperate for anything that could help his brothers. But before he was able to finish the other prisoner grabbed him by his belt, pulling him closer as he yelped in surprise.

“One bottle of painkillers for one favor, we got a deal?” the prisoner talked, and Mikey could see that the prisoner was missing a lot of teeth, now that he had been pulled so close.

“Um, I…” Mikey didn’t know what he was about to get himself into, but they did need the medicine. “I-“

“Let go of him”, Raph suddenly growled, and upon glancing over his shoulder Mikey saw him struggling to get up, face twisted with anger, at least the part that wasn’t covered in the bandaging Mikey had done earlier.

“Leave him alone or I’ll- ow”, Raphael’s outburst got interrupted when he got up too fast, but even as he collapsed back down he didn’t stop glaring at the prisoners with murder in his eyes. “I’ll– “

“Prisoners, what’s the hold up? Move it!” a guard was shouting from afar, and the two prisoners quickly let Mikey go, not wanting to get in trouble.

“Let’s trade later, okay?” the prisoner smirked, and the two of them left.

Mikey stumbled backwards after getting released, quickly turning away from the door of the cell and walking back to the mattresses.

“I’ll get the painkillers later”, Mikey promised, looking defeated as he sat back between Don and Raph.

“Don’t worry about that”, Don said gently. “Those two were up to no good. You shouldn’t talk to them again.”

Raph watching the now empty corridor, muttering curses. If the two prisoners had wanted trouble there wouldn’t have been anything Raph could’ve done. He’d never say it out loud, but he was in no condition to fight anyone, and he hated feeling weak.

“But they have painkillers; maybe they have other stuff too. I think we need something to help us”, Mikey said, looking at Raph as he spoke. Don agreed with him, his leg was no good and Raph was probably suffering from a horrible headache – but they had to be careful.

“We can’t afford to get in trouble right now. Raph needs rest and I– I can’t even get up, I…” Don’s voice disappeared towards the end and he lowered his gaze to glare at his leg, like he could just make it heal by being mad at it.

For a moment they all just weighted the situation inside their minds, feeling disconnected without the four of them together. They knew that getting all depressed wouldn’t help them, but things weren’t looking good. Dwelling on it wouldn’t help, so Mikey raised his head and looked at Don’s hurt limb.

“How’s the leg?”

Don shrugged, trying to move it a bit, but only received a painful reminder that he shouldn’t do that.

“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s going to get better like this”, he sighed, looking over Mikey at Raph, who was now glaring at the wall. “How’re you feeling, Raph?” Don asked, hoping Raph hadn’t caused too much damage to himself when he had struggled to get up earlier.

“Just peachy”, Raph growled. “How the hell are we going to get out of here?”

“Is the headache better?” Don continued asking, ignoring Raphael’s question, and in return Raph ignored his. He knew all they could do for now was to rest to gather some strength, but Don knew Raph wanted to act instead of heal. Staying still made him grumpy, but for now, they’d just have to keep him in bed. But sleep wasn’t the only thing they needed; they needed food, too. But that meant leaving the cell and going into a room full of other prisoners, and Don really didn’t like the idea after what happened just a moment ago. If someone wanted to pick up a fight they’d stand no chance. Still…

“Mikey, you should go and have some food”, Don said, making Mikey glance at him.

“Alone? I’m not gonna leave you two-“

“You think I’d let you go alone? Raph will come with you”, Don said softly, meeting Raphael’s gaze. “If you’re feeling well enough to walk, Raph?”

“’course”, Raph said, sitting up, glad he had the permission to move. Even when just sitting, he swayed a little. Don frowned, but he really didn’t want to send Mikey there alone. There was no knowing what deals Mikey would agree to, if he went by himself. Besides, Raph needed food as well.

“Just get up _slowly_ , this time”, Don added a bit dryly, making Raph mutter in response, not needing to be reminded how weak he was.

“And what, we’d leave you alone, Don?” Mikey asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I think I’ll survive ten minutes.”

“No”, Mikey said, rarely sounding so serious. “We don’t even know where Leo is, I don’t want to get separated from you too-“

“ _That’s_ why you have to go”, Don said. “You need to eat, but you can also look around so we can start planning. Try talking with someone, ask what they know about the winners. Where they’re usually kept and things like that”, he explained, then squinted at Raph. “And don’t get in trouble.”

“Hey, Mikey’s the one who made trouble the last time”, Raph shrugged, but his expression turned more serious. “Speaking of Leo… how did his match go?”

Both Don and Raph looked at Mikey. Don just knew that Leo’s way of winning had been messy, so he hadn’t asked about it yet, but Raph had no idea how the last two battles had went. All he knew was that Leo had won, which he was glad for.

“Well”, Mikey said, lowering his gaze. “He got slashed pretty good, I don’t really know how bad though, I- I didn’t watch all of it…”

Don lowered his head as well, and even Raph realized to not ask for details. They could talk about all this later, or just try to forget.

“But… he’s the winner, they’ll take care of him, right?”

“Let’s hope so”, Don said, raising his head. “But you two should go now, before lunch is over.”

“Still not going to leave you alone”, Raph said firmly.

Don sighed, starting to get impatient since they were just wasting time bickering about this. “Look, it’s just my leg, I’ve been worse and still managed to look after myself. Besides, the guards are here to stop the prisoners from hurting each other, so I’ll be fine. Instead of wasting time, just go already.”

Mikey and Raph glanced at each other. They were both hungry, so refusing food felt only stupid, but leaving Don alone felt stupider. Even though the idea of food wasn’t really that inviting after the battle they knew they’d need their strength. Mikey’s stomach growled and he laughed sheepishly, making Raph roll his eyes.

“We’ll be fast”, Mikey said, helping Raph up. It took him a moment to stop swaying, but he managed to walk on his own if he ignored the headache.

“Real fast if the food is as bad as the last time”, Raph added.

 

* * *

 

The food was better, but it was still gross, and Raph only pushed it around on his plate. Mikey seemed to enjoy his food, but when didn’t he? Raph still noticed how he was glancing around nervously, and with a sigh Raph lifted his fork. The sooner he’d finish the sooner they could leave and get back to Don. Besides, even walking here and sitting was making his head hurt a bit too much and he just wanted to go back to sleep.

A wide-shouldered guy sat next to them, and both Mikey and Raph gave him a wary look, but he guy didn’t seem to pay any attention to them. Mikey went back to his food but Raph turned his head towards him.

“Hey”, Raph said, trying to sound casual, and the big guy just glanced at him, continuing to eat.

“You uh… you wouldn’t happen to know where the game winners stay?” Smooth way to start a conversation.

The guy put his fork down, slowly looking at Raph. “I don’t care about the game.”

“Uh, right… so you don’t know?”

“Everybody does.”

“Well, _I_ don’t”, Raph snarled, making Mikey put a calming hand on his shoulder.

“Well, what do I get in return if I tell?” the guy asked, and Raph opened his mouth to answer, but didn’t know what to say.

A hand touched his other shoulder and Raph turned his head, and upon seeing the owner of the hand he grabbed his sais, only to remember he didn’t have them.

“Relax”, the girl he had fought on the arena said, smiling down at him. “I guess what you said on the arena was true. You guys really are trying to escape.”

Raph shook her hand away from his shoulder, glaring at her.

“Hey, it’s you!” Mikey piped in upon recognizing the girl. “Heh, you really gave Raph a hard time.”

Raph glared at him, silencing Mikey who smiled innocently.

The girl glanced at Mikey, smiling slightly, but returning her attention to Raph.

“I could tell you what this guy here isn’t telling”, she looked at the prisoner next to Raph and he turned away grumbling. “For free.”

“Yeah? Had a chance of heart? Or are you going to start scratching again?” Raph asked darkly, looking back at his food.

“Not this time”, she smiled, taking the seat next to Raph as the big guy left. Her face turned serious. “If you’re really trying to get out, I’ll help you. I want out, too.”

“You were more eager on giving up than getting free the last time we talked”, Raph grumbled, still grumpy about being tricked back on the arena. He didn’t want any help from her.

“C’mon Raph, we need all the help we can get”, Mikey said, grinning when the girl looked at him. “Hey, I’m Mikey. Nice to meet you”, Mikey chirped, offering his hand to the girl. She looked him up and down, and shook his hand, even though a bit hesitantly.

“Cheea”, she introduced herself.

“So, Cheea, where are the winners kept?”

 

* * *

 

Now that Don was alone he braced himself against the wall, taking a deep breath. He had to take a look at the wound on his leg, but he’d rather do it alone so his brothers wouldn’t have more to worry about. He knew Mikey had seen the wound when he had re-bandaged their wounds, but hopefully he hadn’t realized how bad it was. At least he hadn’t mentioned anything about it, had only asked how the wound was. And what did Don know, maybe it wasn’t all that bad, maybe the pain would start fading soon.

But this wasn’t the first time he had gotten injured, so he knew better than that. He started removing the fabric, and didn’t like what he saw once it was gone.

“Great…” he hissed quietly, inspecting the wound. It would take forever for this to heal. There was nothing he could do, so he started bandaging it again. Better to at least keep it as clean as he could, to get an infection at a time like this would be the last straw.

Prisoners were starting to come back from their lunch, and Don glanced at the corridor, but focused on re-bandaging his leg. When he happened to glance there the second time his eyes caught a bug-like creature with something like two long claws, at least he assumed they were claws, but some kind of fabric had been put around them, probably so that he couldn’t start cutting up the other prisoners. It was already passing his cell when it happened to glance towards him, freezing when their eyes met.

It was so fast Don couldn’t react; it had leaped straight from the door, knocking him on his shell and holding the claw against his throat. Even through the fabric Don felt how sharp it was, but as long as the fabric covered it, it couldn’t cut him. But it was flashing him his nasty row of teeth, snarling loudly down at him.

“ _Brother-killer!_ ” it hissed in broken language, speech seemed to be difficult for it. “Cut up brother, then kill! I take revenge!”

“What?” Don croaked, eyes wide from the sudden assault. “I’ve never even met your broth-“

The claw was pressed harder against his throat, and even though it didn’t cut his skin, it cut off his air.

“Kill brother in front of everyone and dare to lie!”

Donatello was still confused, but suddenly he realized. He hadn’t seen what Leo’s last opponent looked like, but it must’ve been the brother this creature was talking about, and he thought that Don was Leo. He tried pushing the claw away, but being under the creature he couldn’t gather enough strength.

“You’ve got… the wrong… turtle…” Don tried saying, but his voice drowned under the snarling. His vision was starting to blur from the lack of air, but suddenly the pressure on his throat disappeared and he coughed, gasping for air.

As he struggled to get up he saw the bug being pressed against a wall by a giant lizard-like creature with glowing neon markings. The lizard let go of the bug and it hissed at the lizard, glancing at Don, but quickly walked out of the cell.

As Don rubbed the tender skin on his throat the lizard turned around to glance at him. Don blinked up at him.

“Thank you- for saving me”, Don said carefully, hoping he wasn’t in even bigger trouble.

“Of course”, the lizard said. It glanced down at Don’s wound, then back up to his face. “I saw you and your brothers in the game. Lost a lot of money betting you’d lose.”

Don laughed sheepishly, thinking _oh man. He’s mad._

“Uh, sorry about that”, he said. Wow, he was apologizing for surviving the game.

“No”, the lizard said, his expression never changing. “I was surprised. It was a good game. It’s usually so… obvious who’ll win.”

Don felt confused, unsure what was going on inside the lizard’s mind. If he liked watching the games, wouldn’t it been good entertainment for him to watch the bug kill him? Why had he saved him?

“We were lucky, yeah”, Don said, still keeping his tone careful and not making any sudden movements.

“Lucky”, the lizard repeated the word, snorting at it. He tilted his head. “I take it that you’re trying to get back to your fourth brother, yes?”

Don blinked, surprised that the lizard was interested. “Y-yes, we are.”

The lizard stepped closer, and Don couldn’t help but trying to move backwards, but he was already against the wall.

“So afraid”, the lizard said a bit coldly. “I only wish to help.”

“Help?” Don couldn’t help sounding confused. So far they had only been treated badly. “Why?”

“Hey! Back off!” Mikey’s sudden yell filled the cell as he ran towards the lizard, jumping to kick him, but the lizard turned around, grabbing Mikey’s leg and slamming him to the ground. He bent down to grab Mikey, pushing him against the wall and holding him there.

“Let him go!” Raph, who hadn’t attacked yet only because his wounds slowed him down, yelled in turn and grabbed the lizard’s arm, trying to make him drop Mikey.

“Stop it!” Don piped up, grabbing the wall for support as he tried getting up. “Please, let him go, I thought you wanted to help-“

“Rekeyke!” Cheea, who had followed Raph and Mikey to the cell, spoke up. “What are _you_ doing here?”

All four of them turned to look at Cheea, and the lizard let go of Mikey, making him fall on the ground. Raph kneeled to check on him, but watched Cheea when the lizard walked towards her.

Without saying anything he walked past her, walking away.

Mikey held his side, rubbing it gently. “That was weird”, he said, and Raph helped him up.

“Did he hurt you, Don?” Raph asked as he eased Mikey down next to him, noticing the mark that was starting to form on Don’s throat. He growled lowly, but Don shook his head.

“No, it wasn’t him. It- uh”, Don went silent as he noticed the girl leaning on the cell’s door. Raph followed his gaze.

“That’s… Cheea”, Raph said, scratching the back of his head.

“The girl that kicked his ass”, Mikey chuckled, dodging Raphael’s right hook.

“The girl from the arena?” Don asked, looking at the girl again. She looked very fragile, so it was hard for Don to believe most of Raphal’s wounds were from her. She only smiled.

“Yes, that’s me”, she said, but her smile disappeared. “What was Rekeyke doing here?”

“You mean the lizard?” Don asked.

“Who else would I mean?” Her voice was dry.

“Right, um, well, he”, Don started to explain, but Raph cut him off.

“He a friend of yours, Cheea? He was trying to hurt my brother.”

“No, Raph, I already said he didn’t-“, Don spoke, but was cut off by Cheea this time.

“Friend? Not a chance”, Cheea hissed. “Whatever he told you, purple one, do not trust him. Just tell him to go away if he comes here again.”

Don was filled with confusion once again. “But he saved my life”, he said, making all three of them look at him. He sighed; so _now_ they were listening.

“There was this… bug that attacked me”, Don said, looking at Mike. “Mikey, was Leo’s last opponent on the arena a bug?”

“Sure was”, Mikey said and Don nodded.

“I guess he confused me for Leo and wanted revenge. I think they were brothers. And well, then the lizard – Rekeyke, was it? – saved me.” Cheea frowned.

“The senophee are a vicious race, they do not care for such things as brothers”, she said.

“Well, he said he wanted revenge for his brother”, Don shrugged.

“Great, more people to avoid”, Raph muttered, crossing his arms.

“Lunch is over soon and I have to return to my cell, and we shouldn’t be seen hanging around each other too much anyways. Meet me again tomorrow, but don’t make it look obvious you were looking for me”, Cheea said. “And don’t get yourselves killed before that”, she added with a smirk, disappearing from the door.

“Why does she have to be so annoying”, Raph muttered as Mikey gave Don the bread he had stolen for him.

“She’s cute”, Mikey shrugged, leaning against the wall. Even though he slept a lot last night, he was sleepy now that the adrenaline from fighting the lizard-guy was fading. He had really thought that Don was in trouble.

“So, did you find out anything useful?” Don asked, taking a bite out of the bread. It was dry and tasteless, but it was better than nothing.

“The prison is divided in different blocks”, Raph said, sitting down as well. “This is block C. Cheea said that the winners are kept in either A or B, but to get to A you have to walk through B anyways, so we could check out both of them.”

Raph scratched his head before he continued. “But, well, first we’d need to get rid of the guards, and she had no idea how to, um, do that.”

“Yeah, that’s going to be the difficult part”, Don agreed. He fell deep into his thoughts, and silence fell between them. By the time he was finished with his bread both Mikey and Raph had fallen asleep, and the door of the cell closed and locked itself automatically. Don sighed as he looked at his sleeping brothers. He hoped it hadn’t been too early to make Raph move around. He sent one last glance at his leg before carefully burrowing himself under the blankets.

 

* * *

 

Leonardo lay awake on the floor of his new cell. He had been moved in together with other prisoners, but he couldn’t see any of them since heavy walls separated the cells.

But he could hear them. On his left chains were clanging and something thumped against the wall with a steady rhythm. It had taken him some time to figure out what was making the noise, but he had realized the prisoner next to him was hitting his head against the wall. He had only gotten a few hours of sleep after his arrival, always waking up to the thumping or the throbbing of his shoulder.

In a way he was glad that the sound was there. It helped him to concentrate on it and block away the other noises. Somebody was constantly wailing in a cell further away, sounding like they were suffering, and occasionally a guard walked to them, whipping them to shut them up. And for a moment they were quiet before starting again.

Another sound sounded like a death-rattle, only that it went on and on, and Leo figured it was just someone’s way of breathing. But it appeared only occasionally, and the first time Leo had heard it he had thought there was someone in his cell. It sounded like it was coming from right behind him, and every time it started, Leo had to look behind himself, just because it sounded so _close_.

Wasn’t this supposed to be a prison, not some torture chamber?

Leo stared at the wall of his cell, listening to the chains in order to ignore the other sounds and the pain on his shoulder. Somebody had tried to mark the days on the wall, somebody had just madly scratched it.

Both his mind and body were tired, but the wailing kept his senses alert, not letting his mind drift to sleep. Leo knew he needed to rest in order to start planning his escape, but no matter how he tried, he couldn’t fall asleep.

Hours passed by, but there was no telling how much time had passed since the game. Another way to keep his mind away from the sounds around him was to think about his brothers. Were they alright? Had Raph woken up? Where were they? If he was the winner and he was kept in a place like this, he couldn’t imagine what had happened to them. Wherever they were, he hoped they were together. Being alone with the noises – someone had started scratching something – made him realize that company mattered a lot.

But Leo was used to being alone, at least he had thought he was. He would’ve meditated to block out the noises, but he couldn’t afford letting his guard down. What if the narrator came back while he wasn’t aware of his surroundings? It was easy to wake from sleep, but meditation was different. Besides, something was bound to happen eventually. The narrator had threatened and threatened, and if he really wanted Leo to pay for his behavior, then sure he had something in mind for him. It wasn’t like Leo wanted to find out, but he knew if he didn’t escape soon, he’d eventually find out.

Turned out he was wrong. Nothing was happening, expect that the thumping continued, the chains clicked against the floor and the heavy breathing was there.

Leo had gotten a few hours of sleep, but every time he woke up he was just as tired. _Thump_ , the wall on his left echoed.

 _Thump_. Leo tried thinking about his brothers again, but the worry didn’t clear his head at all, only scattering his thoughts further and leaving room for the wailing.

 _Thump_. At least now he understood how Don felt after a few all-nighters.

 _Thump_. He tried moving himself into a more comfortable position since his side was starting to go numb, but nothing really helped. He moved his fingers to get the blood flowing again.

 _Thump_. What was the guy’s head made out of? Shouldn’t he have passed out by now? For how long had he done this? How long had the other prisoners been here?

 _Thump_. He hadn’t been here for longer than… a day? Two? Yet he already felt like banging his head on the wall, too. He couldn’t move and his exhausted mind was constantly afraid, creating enemies in the shadows, tricking him that the heavy-breathing came from the corners of his cell.

 _Thump_. Leo realized that food had been brought into his cell. How did they expect him to eat when his hands were bound? Was this just some kind of slow torture?

 _Thump_. Somebody screamed, but the voice was muffled and Leo didn’t even flinch.

 _Thump_. Leo had already counted the scratch-marks on the wall, but he couldn’t remember how many there was. He started counting them again.

 _Thump_. A guard walked past his cell. The whip he carried dripped blood on the floor.

 _Thump_. He lost count and started over.

 _Thump_. Finally, he realized it was easier to just listen than think.

 _Thump_.

 _Thump_.

 _Thump_.

 _Thump_.


	6. Chapter 6

“I feel bad for the second guy”, Mikey whispered.

The prison was silent and dark during the night, the only light coming from the corridor the guards patrolled. Silence was demanded, and if the guards heard anyone speaking they wouldn’t hesitate giving them a painful reminder about the rules, so Mikey was careful to be very quiet.

Raph and Don didn’t need to ask who Mikey was talking about – they hadn’t forgotten what kind of an end the stranger on their team had gotten, and couldn’t help thinking how close it had been that Mikey and Don could’ve followed the same path.

It had been easier to sleep during the last two nights, mostly because their bodies had been so exhausted. But now that they had rested their minds weren’t as eager to let them sleep, the game finally invading their dreams, turning them into nightmares where they lost each other again and again. It wasn’t anything unusual, they had dealt with them all their lives. But it was easier to recover from them when they woke up in the safety of the home, where they could just go and check that everyone was alright. And now things were nothing but alright.

They were sitting on the mattresses, huddled together to speak in hushed voices.

“Did he have a family? Is there anyone that misses him?”

“He was a jerk”, Raph muttered, and Don elbowed him gently.

“He didn’t deserve to go that way”, Don said, placing a comforting hand on Mikey’s shoulder. “But at least he didn’t have to suffer for long.”

Mikey buried his face against his knees. “I guess”, he muttered. “I wonder how Leo’s doing.”

Don and Raph glanced at each other before looking at Mikey, and Raph placed his hand on Mikey’s other shoulder.

“Well, you’d think they’d treat the winner a bit better. Since the audience is going to want to see them”, Don tried to comfort Mikey –and himself as well. “Cheea could have some new information. We’re going to get to Leo soon. If only I just had something to help me walk – I’m really starting to feel stiff.” Don made a face as he stretched his uninjured leg.

“I could try to get you something”, Raph said.

“Thanks, but you think they just have something like that lying around?”

“I’ll break a table or something and bring you the leg.”

Don rolled his eyes, but smiled slightly.

A guard walked past their cell, and they kept silent until the steps were distant again. Michelangelo pulled the thin blanket they had over his head, ready to try sleeping. It was for the best; they still needed rest, and it was almost impossible to get it during the daytime. The prison was just too noisy.

“Raph, we’d better sleep too”, Don whispered. He got no response but didn’t really expect one, about to lie down as well when Raph’s almost soundless groan brought his attention back to him.

“Raph?”

Don moved a bit closer, biting his lip when his leg tried to refuse the movement. But he didn’t need to move more than a few inches, since they were already so close to each other. The cells weren’t exactly warm, and they needed all the warmth they could get.

“Are you alright?” Don asked, carefully reaching for Raph in the dark, but his hand was weakly swatted away.

“It’s nothing”, Raph mumbled. “Just my head.”

“It’s not nothing”, Don said. “It’s a miracle you even woke up from the beating you received – and that you’re not brain-damaged.”

“Wouldn’t be so sure about that one”, Mikey whispered from under the blanket, but quickly shut up when Raph winced in pain. Don grabbed Raph’s arm, feeling a bit helpless.

 “Just lie down”, he advised, gently helping Raph down. “We’ll try to get something for the pain tomorrow.”

Don knew that it took a long time for Raph to fall asleep, but eventually he did. He didn’t dare to sleep before he heard Raphael’s even breathing, but as soon as he did Don allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Despite all the sounds around them they slept late, and when Mikey and Don finally woke up it was almost time for lunch again. They kind of didn’t want to wake Raph up, but he needed to eat.

“Is your head any better?” Don asked carefully when Raph was finally awake.

“I guess”, Raph answered shortly, but Don could tell he wasn’t much different from yesterday.

“Try to get your hands on some ice. I’m sure the kitchen has some. Just don’t get into trouble.”

Mikey and Raph left to get food, and Don couldn’t help but be worried as he watched how Raph swayed as he walked. At least Mikey was with him, looking ready to grab Raph if his legs stopped obeying him. Don was still in no condition to walk, feeling frustrated. Even the table-leg Raph had joked about (at least he hoped Raph had just joked) was starting to sound good, but Don was pretty sure that breaking a table would just get them into more trouble.

Don watched the prisoners walk past his cell, and once again, nobody paid much attention to him.

Expect for two, unpleasantly familiar prisoners.

“Huh, the orange one isn’t here”, the other one said as they stopped in front of the cell.

“Doesn’t really matter which one it is”, the taller of them said. “He’s so hurt he can’t go with his pals! You’d like to trade, right?”

The two of them walked into the cell, making Don back away against the wall. Bumping his shell against it was starting to get too familiar, and Don cursed forgetting about these two.

“Not interested”, he said coldly. “And neither is my brother. Don’t bother coming here anymore.”

The two of them laughed, still getting closer. “Oh, don’t be like that! You’ll change your mind soon enough.”

“I’ll alert the guard”, Don warned, only making them laugh again.

“Sorry, but the guard in charge today is a pal of ours. He won’t care.”

Don felt cold, pressing himself tighter against the wall as the two prisoners hovered over him, the other one yanking away the blanket that was covering his legs. The taller one grabbed his leg, yanking him away from the wall and making him slide on his shell. He cried out as they moved his hurt leg, trying to kick them with the uninjured one.

“ _Stop_ it-“

“Let him go”, came a low voice from the door, and the two prisoners turned around. A giant, familiar lizard stood there, making the prisoners look small compared to him.

“ _Shit_ ”, they muttered, showing the lizard two sheepish smiles. “We didn’t know he was yours, Rekeyke, we swear!”

“Just go”, Rekeyke said, moving aside so the two prisoners could exit the cell. And they did, leaving as fast as their legs could carry them.

After they were gone the lizard turned towards Donatello, who was struggling to get himself back into a sitting position.

“Thank you… again?” Don said, still a bit bewildered about what had happened.

“I came here to apologize”, Rekeyke said with his usual emotionless face. “The girl, Cheea, doesn’t really like me, as you might’ve noticed. I didn’t want to stay for I knew she doesn’t like my presence.”

Don managed to sit again, and he watched the lizard carefully. He had now saved him twice, and both times his timing couldn’t have been better. Don felt a bit uncomfortable, but after he realized it, he felt bad. He should be thankful – he had saved him from the other prisoners.

“She has probably told bad things about me”, Rekeyke continued. “But I assure you I only want to help you with releasing your brother. If you accept my help, that is.”

“Well, we could use all the help we can get”, Don said, but couldn’t help being a bit suspicious since the lizard was being so… eager to help. Maybe he just wasn’t used to others wanting to help him and his brothers. Usually everyone just wanted to hurt them or make things difficult. “But what were the other two talking about? They said they didn’t know ‘I was yours’. I hope you understand why I’m a bit… suspicious.”

“Yes… I guess it is strange for someone to help just because they want to”, Rekeyke said slowly, lowering his head. His face stayed the same blank, but Don could a catch a hint of sadness from his voice.

“No, that’s not what I- I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean it that way”, Don hurried to say, but the lizard shook his head again.

“No, it’s wise of you to not blindly trust someone. Especially in a place like this”, Rekyke lifted his head back up. “I do not blame you. But I hope you can learn to trust me. I’ll give you time to think about it.”

The lizard excused himself, leaving Don alone with his baffled thoughts.

“I did not!”

“You did, though.”

He snapped back from the thoughts moments later, when Raphael’s and Cheea’s bickering could be heard. When they appeared in front of the cell Cheea hushed Raph, not wanting them to bring too much attention to themselves.

“Here”, Raph said to Don, tossing him a broomstick. Expect that you wouldn’t even know that it had been used as such; the broom had been removed, leaving only the stick. It was nothing compared to his own weapon, but it felt good to have something resembling it. It didn’t really make a good cane, it was a bit too long, but Don could use it to push himself up and keep himself on his feet. It was good enough, and certainly better than nothing. Also, now he had something to defend himself with. He smiled up at Raphael gratefully.

“Thanks, Raph.”

“Well, it’s better than a table leg”, Raph muttered. Don laughed a bit.

“I got you something, too”, Mikey beamed, sitting next to Don in order to show him all the stuff he had managed to take from the kitchen. They didn’t look very good, but Michelangelo seemed excited about all the different things he had managed to gather, and Don took a careful bite out of the things that looked the safest.

“I got the ice, too. Raph was too busy chatting with the nice lady to even remember them”, Mikey teased, throwing the pack of ice at Raph. It was an easy throw, but Raph completely miscalculated the distance, not coming even close to catching the ice. He growled loudly when the ice-pack fell to the ground.

“Sorry”, Mikey said, glancing at Don, who was worriedly looking at Raph. Raphael’s slow reaction time worried him, but there still wasn’t anything he could do about it. Only time would tell.

They were soon talking about the plan in quiet voices, Raph holding the ice against his head as they pretended to play with some rocks Mikey had managed to find. He had actually developed a game they could play with them, but nobody but him had really gotten into it.

“Someone has to cause some commotion so that the guards don’t notice us sneaking into the B-block”, Donatello said. “Or we take down the guards that are on duty. There shouldn’t be more than five in this block, but who knows how quickly others will arrive once they realize something’s wrong. And we really don’t have the strength to fight right now.” Raphael opened his mouth to protest, but Don shut him up with his glare. “You will _not_ be the one causing the distraction. You can’t take any more beating.”

“I wouldn’t be _taking_ any, I would be _giving_ some!” Raph said, only managing to make Cheea snicker.

“Aw, is he your big brother or something?” she snickered, and Raph glared at her.

“I’m older than Don.”

“Yet you’re taking orders from him like he’s your mother.”

“I- I don’t take orders”, Raphael huffed.

“I think Leo would disagree”, Mikey snickered in turn.

“Well, he’s not here”, Raph muttered, and they fell silent. Cheea eyed them, raising a brow.

“The moment the conversation goes to him you all go so gloomy”, she said. “He’s a winner, he’s got it good.”

“Really?” Don asked, turning to look at Cheea. She rolled her eyes.

“Duh, obviously. He’s a _winner._ ”

It brought the turtles some comfort. Don was absentmindedly holding one of the tiny rocks, and they all seemed to fall deep in their thoughts. Cheea rolled her eyes again.

“You’re all so soft. No wonder you lost”, she said, not meaning it as an insult, but the turtles glared at her, and she just shrugged. “What? Your brother, Leo? He’s got some attitude, at least. His fight was freaking messy.”

“I don’t think this is the right time”, Don said as Mikey looked away.

“I’m serious”, Cheea smiled as her mind wandered back to the memory. “I mean, not very many dare to threaten the narrator.”

“…What?” Don asked, attention now fully on her. “What did he say?”

“What, how could I have heard if you didn’t?” Cheea raised her brow again.

“Then how do you know he threatened him?” Raph asked, angry that Cheea was talking so lightly when there was something important they didn’t know.

“I saw it, duh. Didn’t you?”

“We couldn’t”, Don said, and realization dawned on her.

“Oh, right, sorry. Didn’t remember how hurt you were. You missed a lot!” Cheea enjoyed how impatient the turtles were getting, but she continued before they could snap at her.

“Well, since nobody could hear what they were talking about it’s hard to say, but it looked like your brother was threatening to end himself. But, apparently he got what he wanted since he didn’t, you know, end himself. But the narrator must’ve been ticked. I would’ve loved to see what happened after the doors closed behind them!”

Raph was attacking before Don could grab him, swinging his fist, but Cheea had already rolled to the side, laughing lightly.

“You think you can hit me when you can’t even catch a pack of ice? Gutsy!”

“Start fucking taking this seriously or I’ll-“, Raph moved closer to Cheea, but was finally stopped by Don.

“Raph, calm down! You’ll only hurt yourself if you get agitated.”

It was true, Raph could already feel his headache flaring, but he was _so_ pissed, Cheea had no place to talk like this-

“I can’t believe you didn’t know”, Cheea smiled, pleased that she seemed to know more than the others. “I think we all know what your brother wanted from the narrator. You should be safe, for now, but I’m not.”

The turtles looked a bit confused, so Cheea sighed, rolling her eyes.

“I lost. I’m going to get _executed_ , dear turtles”, she hummed. “And so would you, but I think your brother spoke you out of that one.”

They thought back on the rules, remembering that they were indeed supposed to be executed since they had yielded. They hadn’t even realized, but Leo must’ve thought about it the whole time, and he had done such a thing to protect them, even without them knowing.

“So it’s… bad if the narrator is… ticked?” Don asked carefully, finally trusting Raph to stay put, letting go of his arm.

Cheea’s smile widened. “I’d say yes.”

“Why is it so funny to you?” Mikey piped up suddenly. His hands were in tight fists and he glared at the girl, and Don wondered if he’d have to hold Mikey in place now. It was a very weird thought – Mikey was never the one who needed to be stopped from hitting someone.

“If you’re worried for him, it makes you work on the plan faster”, she explained. “I don’t have time to fool around, you know. The clock’s ticking!”

“This just means that Leo’s not safe, unlike you were saying earlier”, Don said. “Why are you twisting the truth?”

“Oh, I was just tired of you being so depressed – I was trying to lighten up the mood”, she sighed like it was obvious. “But yeah, I realized we don’t have much time. Better to keep you on your toes.”

Prisoners were starting to return to their cells, and Cheea frowned. “We didn’t get anywhere”, she moaned, standing up and kicking one of the rocks. “Well, I hope you three have something figured out soon.”

She left, leaving them in silence. The sound of the door closing seemed to echo louder than normally.

 

* * *

 

“Well, we should finally get rid of these”, Don said, raising his hand. All of them had electric rings wrapped around their wrists. “As long as we have these they can electrocute us. I think some of the guards carry the key to these things, but I don’t know if all of them do.”

“So all we have to do is steal”, Cheea said. “Easy.”

It was lunchtime again and they were sitting together. It had already been two weeks since the game, and they could hardly believe how quickly time had passed. There had been days when they hadn’t learned anything new, days when there were too many guards for them to do anything. Two weeks of hearing nothing from Leo had made them even more anxious to get to him, but they had to be patient. They couldn’t afford getting caught.

They had used their days resting and gathering their strength, watching the guards, timing the ends and beginnings of their shifts, trying to peek through the bars of the cell to see where they usually patrolled. And even though the rest had been good for getting back some of their strength they still didn’t know where Leo was or how he was being treated, the worry heavy on their shoulders. Their attitude towards Cheea had gone a bit colder after they had talked about Leo, but they needed allies if they wanted to get out of here.

Thanks to his home-made cane Don had been able to get used to walking again. He had been able to join his brothers for lunch, but he was still slow and clumsy. And even though moving around was painful he was glad to be moving again – he would’ve gone crazy if he’d had to stay even one more day sitting in that cell.

Raph was still suffering from headaches, and had really given them a scare one morning. When he had woken up he had been nauseous and dazed, momentarily not remembering where he was. He had been sluggish and weak the whole day, but it had eventually passed. Don hadn’t been surprised, he knew Raph had suffered a nasty concussion, but it had still been scary. And most of all, painful for Raphael.

Even though Raph was getting better it had still created new worries – what if Raph would get dizzy and disoriented when they were trying to escape? Raph no longer swayed as he walked, but Don was still forbidding him from using his other eye, so it was left behind the bandaging to heal. It annoyed him a lot, since the lack of the other eye made him a bit clumsy sometimes, but it was better to let it heal properly.

“If it’s so easy to steal them, then why hasn’t anyone done it already?” Don thought out loud. “There’s got to be a catch. We have to think-“

“Everyone’s just too dumb, afraid or _overthinking_ , that’s why nobody’s done it.” Cheea looked at all of them accusingly before continuing. “And haven’t we already wasted too much time? Let’s just do it. I’m sneaky; they won’t know I was ever there.”

“I… I know we should hurry, but we can’t risk it – if the one attempting it gets caught everything will be twice as difficult.”

“Unless we send her, and if she gets caught, not our problem”, Raph growled at Cheea, and she laughed shortly.

“Glad you’re so caring, Raphael. But don’t worry about me, I won’t get caught.”

“Even if you manage to do it, we still haven’t decided what to do after that”, Don said. Well, they had talked about it, but hadn’t decided on it yet. “If Cheea is the one stealing the key, then either Mikey or me has to create the distraction.”

“It can’t be you, Don”, Mikey said. “Your leg.”

“I can walk again”, Don reminded him, tapping the stick Raphael had stolen for him.

“But not fast enough. What would the distraction even be? We can’t be there when the distraction begins; we just have to make it happen.”

They all thought about it, but nobody came up with anything. Until Don carefully looked at the others.

“Unless we just use force instead of a distraction.”

“I like the sound of that, but I thought we weren’t ‘strong enough’?” Raph said with a raised brow.

“That’s right, _we_ aren’t. But Rekeyke-“

“No”, Cheea said. “Absolutely not! He’s a traitor.”

“How do you even know that?”

“I’ve heard things-“

“Well, I’ve been talking with him-“

“Talking with him? Don, you never mentioned him coming here again”, Mikey interrupted them, and Don looked sheepish. He hadn’t wanted to tell his brothers he had gotten in trouble again, and after that he had kind of pushed it for later, and then it hadn’t even felt so important anymore…

“I kind of forgot about it”, Don said carefully. “He just, uh, comes here to talk. He wants to help us break out of here.”

“What, why?”

“Well, I don’t exactly know, probably for the same reason Cheea does.” They glanced at her, and she sighed in defeat.

“Alright, do what you want, but I swear if he messes up-“

“We get it, you hate him, yadda yadda”, Raph interrupted. “I trust Don’s judgement.”

Don felt a knot form inside his stomach; he was still unsure about the lizard, but they all seemed to have the same goal. To get out of there.

“Now we just need to let him know about the plan.”

 

* * *

 

Sometimes the electric lock around his wrists opened, and when his numb hands fell to the floor on their own Leo winced in pain. The unused muscles were stiff and the movement tore at his poorly healing shoulder.

But during those times he could crawl towards the food and eat. Sometimes he had the strength to do it, sometimes he didn’t. Eating and sleeping poorly for so long had taken a lot out of his strength. It didn’t matter that time had passed; he couldn’t get used to the place, couldn’t get real sleep. Something always woke him up, the voices, the feeling of being watched, or the pain.

Despite the loss of his strength he had fought to get out; had gone the cell through looking for something to use, anything he could use to open the lock – but there was nothing. Had his hands been free he could’ve tried to snatch the keys from the guards walking past, but they were tightly tied behind his back. And it wasn’t even rope or chains, no, just this stupid electric lock he couldn’t break free from. He had tried to, had hit it against the wall over and over again, but didn’t know if he had even scratched it. It was a waste of energy. Everything was, yet he tried.

These time when his hands were free were rare – and of course the guards never patrolled then. The lock around his wrists opened automatically, and when the guard came to put his hands behind his back another guard stood by the door of the cell, a gun in his hand.

Yet Leo had taken the risk; just before his hands were locked again he had kicked, using all his remaining strength to send the guard against the wall of the cell. He had then rolled away from the firing gun, ignored the pain in his shoulder and jumped up – even the dizziness hadn’t stopped him, he had managed to even kick the gun away from the guard’s hands, had almost been out of the cell-

But another guard had taken him down, paralyzed him with his gun. The despair he had felt when he had been dragged back to the cell – he could’ve done it. Had he been more careful, had his body not resisted everything he did-

Nobody had talked with him in what seemed like ages. The guards never said anything, no matter how much Leo pleaded them to tell what was happening to his brothers. Eventually he didn’t bother asking anymore, just numbly waited for a never coming chance to escape with strength that just wasn’t enough.

When someone finally spoke to him he thought he was finally losing it, but when he lifted his head he saw the narrator floating in front of his cell.

“Oh, looks like the guards haven’t treated you very well. Seeing you on the arena in this condition is going to be interesting”, it spoke to him. “Or should I say, _not_ very interesting… it’s going to be, ah, boring…”

“Where are they?” Leo asked, and couldn’t remember the last time he had said something else. His voice was hoarse from not having enough to drink and for not having used his voice.

“I haven’t yet had the time to play with them”, it said. “But don’t worry; I’ll get to them soon. Do you know why I spared your brothers?”

“To make us an example”, Leonardo said numbly, lowering his head back to the floor. He didn’t feel like talking back to the narrator, since he was just tormenting him, but he hadn’t spoken to anyone in weeks. He needed something to focus on. Anything, even if it was just a different kind of torture.

“Yes… but it’s been a long time since I had prisoners like you”, the machine hummed. “You see, or well, hear these other prisoners? They’ve got nothing left. No family they could lose. They wouldn’t mind their pain ending. But you”, the red eye seemed to burn brighter. “You’ve got _everything_ to lose. And I’m going to watch you lose all of it.”

Leo shut his eyes, not needing this right now. He kept his eyes closed until the narrator was gone.

That night, when the wailing began again, he could hear his brother’s voices mixing into them, they cried out in pain as the narrator hurt them- No! He had to trust that his brothers were planning their escape.

Yet no matter how hard he tried, all he could see was their broken forms, beaten by the game, suffering because of his choice to keep them alive. He scooted away from the wails, closer to the bars in his cell since the wailing seemed to echo better in the back of his cell. He hated the tricks his exhausted mind was starting to pull on him, hated how he couldn’t do anything. His forehead touched the cold bars and Leo wished the prisoner on his left would start hitting his head already; the noise it made was the only thing he could numb his mind with.

Something touched his cheek and he flinched away. And as soon as he figured out what had touched him he scrambled backwards despite the pain moving so fast caused, stopping only when his shell hit the wall of the cell.

Bugs, _giant_ roaches, were lazily walking on the floor. Leo wasn’t usually bothered by them, they saw them in the sewers all the time, but these were huge and there was no way to avoid them. He felt more trapped than before, pressing himself against the wall and hoping the bugs would stay away. The voices were stronger in the corner, but he had no choice but to listen, drowning in his anxiety.

 

* * *

 

They had to wait another night to be able to get out of their cell to find Rekeyke. Yet no matter where they looked, the lizard couldn’t be found. Lunch was almost over and Raphael’s patience was ending.

“We’ll just do it without him”, he grumbled.

“You know we can’t”, Don said, even though he was anxious to get away from here as well. “We just have to wait until tomorrow and try again.”

Two weeks and a bit more had already passed since the game, and the talk with Cheea was pressing on them. They knew the clock was ticking, but the lizard wasn’t showing up, and they needed him. Waiting meant that they were getting more desperate, but getting caught just wasn’t an option. Everything would be over if they messed up.

The next day their luck finally turned. They found Rekeyke from the busy cafeteria, but upon hearing the plan the lizard wasn’t pleased.

“I thought you weren’t stupid”, he said, sounding a bit agitated, which was new. “You expect me to attack the guards when they can take me down with just a press of a butto-“

“Give me your hand”, Don said gently, holding up the key Cheea had stolen. She had made sure to rub her perfect crime in the turtle’s faces, mocking them for not believing in her.

The lizard gave Don a puzzled look, but gave his hand. Don opened the lock around his wrist easily, and for the first time since meeting him he seemed happy.

“This changes things”, Rekeyke said. “I’ll do as you said. I’ll take down the guards and we’ll head forward. But we have to be fast – they’ll send a distress signal and more guards will show up.”

“Got it”, Don smiled. “So, tomorrow when everyone’s eating and the guards are in one place?”

“What, tomorrow? We still have to wait?” Raph complained.

“Lunch is ending soon, everyone’s already on their way back”, Don explained. “I hate to wait as much as you do, Raph, but you know we can’t screw up.”

Cheea was keeping silent when Rekeyke was with them, but at least she wasn’t complaining. Everyone knew the plan to every detail now, the only thing left was to act.

Sleep didn’t come easily that night. They were excited to finally get out of here, but also nervous. There was so much that could go wrong. But if everything went according to the plan, they’d finally see Leo again.

“I just hope he’s alright”, Mikey mumbled, and Don and Raph agreed.

 

* * *

 

The guards screamed, shooting their laser beams blindly, hitting each other, hitting the prisoners. They couldn’t understand why the giant lizard didn’t fall on his knees when they tried pressing their buttons. Rekeyke seemed unstoppable as he rampaged from guard to guard, clearly enjoying smacking the guards around. He didn’t care if they died, if he took a blow or two – he had missed being free.

The others, watching from afar, were afraid Rekeyke was lost in his enjoyment of battle. They had agreed he’d take the guards down fast and they’d go, but now it looked like he was just messing with them.

“We need to go without him”, Raph whispered, but Don held him in place.

“There will be guards in the next block, too”, Don whispered back. “We need him.”

Finally Rekeyke seemed to calm down, bust mostly because there were no guards left standing. He looked around, eyeing the other prisoners who had been curiously watching, and most of them backed away, fearing the lizard would attack them as well. But he seemed to remember his mission, and he sprinted away.

The turtles and Cheea ran with Rekeyke through the prison-block, and as they got to the end of it, an alarm started blaring.

“We can get to the A-block without having to enter the B-block”, Rekeyke informed them, leading them away from the door which read _B-BLOCK_ above it.

“What? But we were supposed to check both blocks, starting from this one”, Don protested, and Cheea snarled next to him.

“Didn’t I tell you he’s a traitor? He’s trying to lead us into a trap!”

“Why would I knock down the guards just to lead you into a trap? Stop wasting time, fools! The alarm is on, the guards will come through the B-block!” Rekeyke said angrily, continuing towards the next door without waiting for the others.

“I think he’s right”, Don said, going after him as fast as he could with his injured leg. The stick helped him to go faster, but he still couldn’t run as fast as the others. Raph and Mikey went after him, making Cheea growl in frustration, but she followed as well.

The door looked something like a maintenance-door, and after using the keys they had stolen they entered a narrow corridor. Wires hanged above them, and occasionally some of them would send down sparks.

“Talk about bad wiring”, Don muttered as he looked up at them, but otherwise the group was silent. They could hear yelling from behind them, but nobody was entering the corridor.

The way seemed endless and Raph was starting to doubt it as well, occasionally muttering something like _this has to be a trap_ , but they followed Rekeyke anyways. Going back would only mean getting caught.

Finally they entered the A-block, and to their surprise, it was very quiet. There were some spare guns on the wall next to the main room, laser guns which the guards used, and they all grabbed one. They sneaked in further, glancing at the corridor where most of the cells were. They seemed empty, and as they checked them, they were. No prisoners, no guards. Raph growled, turning around and pointed his gun at Rekeyke.

“If this ain’t a trap then I don’t know what is! There’s nobody here, isn’t that a _bit_ suspicious?”

Cheea lifted her gun as well. “I told you, Raphael.”

Rekeyke didn’t lift his gun, only glared at the two. “I’m just as confused. This place is often empty because they don’t have many winners alive, anymore, but I thought at least he would’ve been here.”

“Right, of course”, Raph said, not believing a word. He loaded the gun.

“Raph, stop it!” Don said, hurrying to him and forcefully lowering his hand. “We can’t turn on each other now! Don’t we all want to escape?”

“We know nothing about him, Don! The plan was to go to the B-block, but now we’re here and Leo’s not here! So obviously he’s in the B-block, but now the guards are probably all there and-“

Cheea fired, but Rekeyke lifted his hand to shield his face from the shot. His thick skin didn’t look affected at all, and as she fired again Rekeyke turned around, smacking her with his tail and sending the gun out of her hands.

“ _How dare you_ ”, Rekeyke growled, walking towards her. “Nobody-“

Mikey hurried between them. “Stop it, you two! We don’t have the time!”

The doors opened and guards stormed in, guns already up and pointed at them. Don saw the guns were different, and dread washed over him- but he didn’t have the time to yell before the guards were shooting, the Taser guns effectively bringing them down on the ground.

 

* * *

 

“What? Five prisoners escaped and you don’t know where they are?” the narrator hissed to the guard informing him. It turned around and started floating away. “No matter, we’ll find them.”

“It seems they aren’t in the prison area anymore”, the guard said quietly, hoping the narrator wouldn’t hear, but it did. It stopped it’s floating, but after a while, it continued.

“Interesting”, it said. “I thought the turtles would want to rescue their brother, but I guess not. Cowardly escaping without him – and here I thought they were some _good_ beings!” it laughed as it turned around to exit the room, but a beep suddenly came from the guard’s radiophone.

“Wait- I got some news on them. They’ve found the escaped prisoners!” the guard stated excitedly, hoping to please the narrator.

The machine stopped again, glancing at the guard.

“Well, that’s good”, it said simply, but it had ideas not directed towards the three turtles. The blue one was the cause of all of this – the three turtles wouldn’t have escaped in the first place had the blue one not blackmailed it to save their lives. So, everything the three turtles did was the blue’s responsibility. It would make him pay for their stead.

The machine left the room, going straight to the B-block. It pressed itself against the bars of the turtle’s cell, enjoying the sight of the limp and weak prisoner.

“I just received the news that your brothers have managed to escape”, it greeted, trying to sound disappointed, but couldn’t contain its emotions, so its voice was a mix of fake-sadness and excitement. He’d just send the three turtles to the arena and break this one further.

Leo lifted his head at the mention of his brothers, having to blink the dizziness away before he could see or understand the narrator.

“What…?” Leo managed to quietly ask, a sudden feeling of hope waking inside his chest. He had never doubted that his brothers could escape – for a moment he had just forgotten that it didn’t have to always be _him_ who came up with the plan. Even if he was alone and unable to do anything, it didn’t mean that all was lost. It didn’t always have to be him who would be counted on – he could count on his brothers, too.

The thought brought him warmth he hadn’t felt in a long time, but he hurried to not get his hopes too high. As happy as he was be able to see his brothers again, he kind of wished he wouldn’t. If his brothers had managed to escape, he prayed they’d realize to stay away – they couldn’t risk coming here and getting caught again. If the narrator knew they had escaped, surely Leo would be guarded better now.

But he knew that they would risk it. He knew they would come for him, no matter how dangerous it would be. It made him feel a bit frustrated, he just wanted _them_ to be safe- but also… warm. He was alone here in the cell, but he wasn’t _really_ alone.

A guard walked next to the machine, holding three torn pieces of fabric in his hand.

Orange, purple and red.

“But, _unfortunately_ , they got caught again”, the machine continued, pleasure seeping through its voice. “I executed them on the spot.”

Leo stared at the masks, suddenly unable to breathe.

“ _My condolences._ ”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapters contains blood and mental torture, and that goes for the future chapters as well. I don't know how detailed this is, but just to give a warning. Stay safe, and thanks for reading!

The world swayed as Don forced his eyes open, groaning as all his pains returned with his consciousness. He was on the floor, trying to gather his thoughts, feeling the cold floor with his hand. The floor, why was he- memories flooded back to him, and he glanced wildly around himself.

Guards were lying around him, and so were Mikey, Raph and Cheea. Only Rekeyke was standing, and Donatello had to lift his head to see up at his face.

“I swear I didn’t know about this”, Rekeyke said as soon as he noticed Don’s gaze. “I didn’t take us to the B-block first because the guards were there, didn’t I tell you so? I’ve sent a fake alert to the radios, telling the other guards we’re outside the prison, but they won’t be fooled for long.” While Rekeyke spoke Don sat up, trying to get his sore muscles working again. Getting hit by a Taser was definitely something he wasn’t looking forward to trying again anytime soon.

Rekeyke had taken down the whole group of guards alone. Don felt a mixture of fear and safety – why would the lizard be going this far if he really didn’t mean well? Donatello scooted over to his brothers, gently shaking them to get them awake. They seemed as disoriented as Don had felt earlier, but as soon as Raphael’s eyes were open he was on the alert.

“ _You-_ “, Raph was glaring at Rekeyke before he was even up, searching the floor for the gun he had dropped, but Don stopped him.

“Raph, he saved us! _Again!_ ” Don snapped, starting to feel irritated at both Raph and Cheea. “Just look around, Raph – without him, the guards would’ve-“

Raph was looking around, and turned his head to look at Don sharply.

“Yeah, right, he took all these guards down himself – I say they’re just playing to make us trust that lizard, and I ain’t buying it!”

Don couldn’t believe this – he knew Raph didn’t trust easily, but he didn’t have to be at Rekeyke’s throat every chance he got. Don grabbed Raph’s arm tighter, giving him an angry glare.

“ _Listen, Raph_ ”, Don’s voice was suddenly full of ice. “The longer you keep acting like this the more time we lose, and that could mean losing Leo. Are you going to risk that?”

Judging by the groan that left Cheea she was coming around as well, and Don turned his glare to her. “The same goes for you, _Cheea_ – if you slow us down even one more time, I swear it’s going to be _me_ firing the gun the next time!”

Raph was silent. Don’s anger alone was able to shut him up – Don never threatened to _shoot_ anyone – but the fact that he was right made Raphael lower his head. He knew what was on the line here – he just hadn’t realized how close to completely screwing up he had come.

But it wasn’t only his fault, Cheea had been the one who fired – but he knew better than to start blaming her now. Don was right, he was _always_ right, they were just wasting time arguing. They had already agreed to follow the _damn_ lizard, so no point pouting about it now. They had to just go with it.

“Well, this was a nice conversation to wake up to”, Cheea said, still holding her head. Rekeyke didn’t seem affected by the outburst, only waited for the outcome. With a huff Don grabbed his gun and stick, pushing himself up.

Michelangelo offered his hand for Raphael, who took it, feeling humble for once. He couldn’t let his temper and distrust slow them down. Not when they had so much to lose.

The door to the B-block wasn’t far, but it didn’t bring them much comfort. Even before the door was fully open they could tell that the block was horrible.

The smell of blood hit them hard, the sounds almost making them halt. Helpless wailing, banging on the bars. Even though they had just arrived, they wanted to leave already.

“Leo is… in _here?_ ” Mikey asked, his voice small. Nobody answered him; this was the last place they hadn’t looked. If Leo was here, if he had been here for _weeks…_

The corridor looked empty, but it was much darker in here than in the previous blocks. It was like this place was meant to look and sound like some torture-chamber, and it felt absurd that the prison where nobody had been allowed to hit each other was right next to this… _place_. Since no guards were in sight they moved forward carefully, checking the cells as they passed them.

The sight was horrible, most of the prisoners were so battered and weak they just lay in their cells, looking dead. Maybe they were.

They felt very small – this didn’t just seem like a torture-chamber, this _was_ one. What was the point of this – there was no way that these prisoners could ever attend the game. It was just… torture. But wasn’t the game as well?

Mikey yelped suddenly, and they all turned to look at him. A prisoner had reached from between the bars and had grabbed his ankle, trying to pull him closer.

“ _Help_ ”, the prisoner pleaded, and pity washed over them. Don hurried to grab the earlier-stolen key, but it didn’t open the cell.

“All the blocks probably need different keys”, Don muttered. “We need to get-“

“No, we need to get _Leo!_ ” Raph said, frustrated. He wanted to help as well, torn between helping Don to get the cell open and running off to look for Leo. He wanted to help, but they didn’t have the time. The regret and blame of him slowing them down earlier still burned, and he didn’t want to risk anything anymore. Especially now that they had seen _this._ If most of the prisoners looked like they were barely holding onto life, then… They should’ve come here sooner. Way sooner.

“We have to get the key anyways, if we want to open Leo’s cell!” Don said, and Raph clenched his fists. He just wanted to get to Leo. He _had_ to get to Leo.

“I’d just like to find the exit”, Cheea mused, hands folded over her chest.

Without a warning Rekeyke lifted his hand, pointing the gun at the lock and pressing the trigger.

Don and Raph were taken off guard, hurrying to shield their heads from the blast, since the lock was right next to them. It broke with a loud clang, sending sparks over the turtles.

“Watch it”, Raph mumbled, feeling so annoyed with the lizard that he needed to _growl_ and _yell,_ but didn’t. He couldn’t pick up a fight again. He also couldn’t _wait_ any longer. Raph turned around and continued the search while Don and Mikey kneeled to help the weak prisoner.

He didn’t get far, though. The corridor was dark, and he almost ran head first into someone blocking the way. The bug that had attacked Don earlier. It stood tall in front of him, eyes glowing in the dim light, claws raised. It blinked, seeming a bit surprised.

“You keep changing color, but I know it is you”, the bug hissed as soon as it realized what it was looking at, slashing down at the turtle, but Raph ducked and backed away. This time he didn’t just almost bump into something, his shell collided with something big, and glancing over his shoulder revealed that Rekeyke was standing right behind him. Before he could react the lizard turned around, slamming his huge tail into Raph’s side and sending him against the bars of the closest cell. The bars clattered from the impact, making the prisoner inside back away.

Raph growled, lifting his head when he could hear Don calling for him. He couldn’t see Don, Rekeyke was blocking his path, but knew that he stood next to the lizard.

“What is this, Rekeyke? What are you doing?” Don sounded confused and angry. “You can leave already if that’s what you want, we can get Leo on our own, so just go!”

“No”, the lizard said, making Raphael cry out when he smacked him again, preventing him from trying to get up. Don clenched his fists.

“I merely wanted to help him”, Rekeyke stepped to the side, and now Don could see the bug as well. “It was his brother who your brother killed on the arena.”

Don took a step back – he had never fully trusted Rekeyke, but this? All the trouble, helping him and all of them, for this? It made no sense, Rekeyke could be free with them, but instead-

“Enough talk! Rekeyke, free me! Free my claws!” the bug walked forward, showing the lizard his claws still covered in the thick fabric.

“You’d go this far just to get revenge on something Leo didn’t even mean to do? It was the game! He had no other options! That bug- his brother- would’ve killed Leo had he not fought back!” If Rekeyke had already come this far for this, Don knew that reasoning him was probably a waste of time. But he had to try – they were still recovering, fighting these two now would be impossible.

“It does not matter how he died, he’s dead and all that’s left is revenge”, Rekeyke spoke calmly, starting to unwrap the fabric around the bug’s claws. The fabric came off slowly, and Don knew they wouldn’t get another chance.

Don raised his gun, but Rekeyke’s tail smacked him hard, aiming for his hurt leg. Don fell onto his knees with a pained cry, but still held the gun tightly.

“I think I’ll just drag you three to him”, the lizard hissed. “Let your brother watch as I rip you apart before we kill him as well!”

Rekeyke turned around and Don aimed his gun, but the doors on the other side of the block opened, filling the corridor with the shouts of guards. Rekeyke looked over his shoulder towards the guards, the bug already fleeing the scene. Rekeyke gave Don a quick glance, but followed after the bug.

Raph had forced himself up, but he was headed to the wrong direction, straight towards the guards. He was still trying to get Leo.

“Raph!” Don called after him, but Raph didn’t as much as glance towards him. Don gritted his teeth, reaching for his stick. He leaned back, throwing it at Raphael. It caught with Raph’s legs, sending him tumbling down, companied with a surprised yelp, followed with an annoyed growl.

It was difficult to get to him without the aid of his stick, but Raph hadn’t gotten far. Donatello forced himself forward, knowing that if he didn’t reach Raph in time he’d just get himself caught. He grabbed Raph’s arm just as he was pushing himself up, tugging at his limb so hard that he almost dragged the bigger turtle back down.

“Don! Leo’s still there!” Raph growled, struggling to get free from his grip.

“Yeah, he’s where the guards are! We’ll only get caught!” Don tried to desperately reason him, trying to pull himself up, but he had to focus on not letting Raph go, holding him with both hands. He couldn’t lose another brother to this horrible place.

“But we have guns now!” Raph protested weakly, but they could tell that the guards were getting closer. The block was huge, but they didn’t have much time.

“They won’t help us. We don’t have the strength”, Donatello said, wincing when he had to put his weight on his leg. “We have to go or we’ll never get him!”

Raph hesitated. They were so close – he could feel it, he knew Leo was there, maybe the next cell, or the one after it – but the guards were already getting closer, their footsteps echoing in the walls, the hum of loaded guns getting louder-

“Dudes! We gotta go!” Mikey was there, placing his hand on Raph’s shoulder, but the red turtle only shook the touch away.

“No _,_ we came here to get Leo, and we’re _fucking_ getting him“, Raph growled, struggling against Don’s hold.

“Raph, I don’t want to leave him either”, Don said brokenly, tugging at Raph’s hand when he pulled away. “I _hate_ to leave him here. But we can’t, we- please, Raph. _Please_ listen.”

Don’s helpless voice was finally enough to make Raph turn around, and he felt a stab in his chest. Donatello was clearly in pain, desperately trying to push himself up despite his trembling legs. And Raph was just so _stupid,_ ignoring him, risking _all_ of them- He didn’t care if the guards got him, he’d put up a fight they had never seen before, but if he got Mikey and Don in trouble… How could he ever face Leo then?

Raph growled, angry at himself, angry at this stupid fucking prison, angry at the whole damn universe – two brothers needed him, but he could only choose one. No, he couldn’t even choose – he had to leave one behind, and it hurt more than _anything_ could. It felt like betraying Leo. Raph gritted his teeth, turning his back, regret already blooming inside of him.

Raph yanked Don up, unable to be careful with him right now. Don bit his lip when pain surged through his injured limb, but let Raph drag him without making a sound. He grabbed his stick, but Mikey’s support was better than the stick’s. With both of his brothers at his sides running was a bit easier. Painful, but easier.

It felt stupid, knowing that only way to get to Leo was to run _away_ from him. They didn’t even know if they had the time for this – nobody in this block would stay alive for much longer without any help. If the same was for Leo…

They followed the path Rekeyke and the bug had left, going through open doors they hadn’t had the time to close. They could hear the guards behind them, and suddenly Cheea was running with them too. 

“I told you, I told you! I told you don’t trust the freaking lizard and look where that got you!” Cheea hissed as they ran, but nobody felt like answering her. This wouldn’t have been possible without Rekeyke’s aid; they hadn’t had any other choice.

They ran back to the A-block, running past the empty cells as guns were fired behind them. They reached the end of the block, coming to a halt when Rekeyke and the bug were standing by the door.

Their backs were turned; they were trying to get the door open. Don was the one with the key, and he tried to nervously step forward.

“No, let them open the door”, Raph hissed, pulling Don back. 

“This is the only key we had”, Don said, grabbing it from his belt to show Raph. The cells and doors had different keys, and they only had the key to the doors.

Rekeyke turned around, and Raph automatically dragged both Mikey and Don backwards.

“Give it”, Rekeyke demanded, his voice low, eyes on the key. The guards weren’t far, and none of them wanted to get caught. There was no time to neither fight nor discuss things, so Don threw the key. Rekeyke caught it with ease, turning back to the door. As soon as it was open the bug was out in a flash, but Rekeyke turned around, his hand hovering above the control panel on the other side of the door.

“Don’t you fucking dare!” Raph growled immediately, but Donatello placed a hand on his plastron, simply holding Rekeyke’s gaze. Don knew that the lizard longed for his revenge, and that he’d never get it if he closed the door. The hesitation was clear in his eyes.

The eye contact didn’t last for long. Rekeyke growled, his hand dropping down as the lizard turned around to run. Cheea and the turtle dashed through the door, closing it after them.

“Well, that was stressful!” Michelangelo yelped, suddenly almost stopping. The fresh air hit their senses hard, and for a moment they almost forgot to run. The night was a bit chilly, but the feeling of grass under their feet, the sky above their head, the still lingering smell of rain-

“Move it”, Raph broke the spell, pushing Mikey forward while still helping Don.

But Don had lifted his hand up, pushing against Raph. All the running had been bad for his leg and his limping was worse now, and he was only getting slower. He was slowing Raphael down. Once the guards opened the door they would-

“Stop it, Don!” Don was a bit startled by the tone in Raphael’s voice, and their eyes met for a second. Raph looked like Don had just greatly offended him, the hurt clear in his eyes.

“Don’t even _think_ that I’m letting go”, Raph growled at him, and yanked Don closer.

Every step hurt. They were all injured and exhausted, and knowing that with every step they were getting further away from Leo felt like a new stab. They had been so close, they knew they had.

If only Leo could know it too.

They were still following the path Rekeyke and the bug left, through the torn fence, past the guards the two had taken down. The grass was wet and slippery, making their getaway even harder, but as soon as the fence was behind them they disappeared into the dark of the night.  

Cheea had left them as soon as Don’s limping had started to slow them down. There was no sign of her.

The city was surprisingly close, and they didn’t allow themselves to stop before they reached it. An empty alley gave them temporary shelter, allowing them to catch their breath and count their wounds.

“ _Damnit_ ”, Raph panted bitterly, still trying to catch his breath. He punched the wall of the foreign building giving them shelter, hesitating, punching again. They had been so close. So close.

Only when Michelangelo pulled him away he stopped punching, falling down into a sitting position, all the hurt and disappointment weighing him down. He hid his head in his hands, unable to stop images from the prison seeping into his mind. Leo was still there. Mikey slid down next to him, carefully wrapping his arms around his brother. Don leaned against his other side, and they sat in silence for a long time.

 

* * *

 

 

Something was happening; Leo could hear the guards shouting and their guns firing, but it hardly mattered anymore. He could hear voices resembling his brothers, but he knew it was just his mind playing tricks, still trying to deny what had happened, still believing in them.

“I heard what the narrator said. I am very sorry for your brothers”, a deep voice echoed in his cell. Leo lay in the corner of his cell again, and the voice was coming from the cell on his right. There was a tiny crack in the wall, so it was easy to speak to the one in there. Not like Leo wanted to speak. The crack had also been the place where the deep-breathing had come from, and Leo could tell the breathing that had startled him so many times earlier belonged to whoever was talking now.

“Let me tell you a story to bring some comfort.”

As the deep voice started talking Leo didn’t really listen, just kept staring at the wall with hazy eyes. The feelings had already gone through him, leaving him empty. Denial had been first, he refused to believe his brothers were gone. The narrator was lying. Wouldn’t he have known somehow? They couldn’t just… no.

But he hadn’t seen them in… weeks? Months? How long had he been here? How long had _they_ been here? How long had they suffered before they- no. The anger and loss were overwhelming, too strong, and he was too weak. He had no other option but to shut the feelings away or they’d eat him alive, causing him to fall into a numb state of feeling nothing.

The sounds of guns and voices were fading, and all that remained was the story that was told grom the other side of the room. He clung to the deep voice like it was all he had, not really hearing the words, but registering that the other one was telling him about his own distant home planet.

But when he spoke of purple fields, orange waters and red skies, Leo listened.

 

* * *

 

 

It was raining. The tree turtles had found a better shelter, an abandoned cellar near the edge of the city. Everything was dusty and chilly there, but it was better than nothing. They slept close to each other like they had done for the past few weeks in the prison, trying to escape the cold and… everything. They had thought that knowing at least where Leo was would bring some comfort, but it was just the opposite. Knowing that their brother had been in that horrible place all this time, and _still_ was made them feel sick, and knowing how close to him they had been was just salt to their wounds.

The city was gloomy, it rained constantly. The buildings were tall and dark and nothing was familiar. The residents looked like they came from different parts of the galaxy, but the turtles had watched the life of the city with mild interest. Don had been paying attention the most, trying to learn from their surroundings, but there wasn’t really much to learn. There wasn’t much point in learning.

After resting and recovering from their escape they still felt numb, but knew that they couldn’t give up. They waited until it was dark, and moved away from the shelter, trying to find food and trying to blend in. The old cellar had had some old rugs which they had draper over themselves, making them look like some cheap clothing. They had seen a screen in one of the shops windows, replaying the game. They would most likely be quickly recognized if they showed their faces in the public.

There streets were quiet at night, but they did their best to not draw any attention. And in the end it wasn’t that difficult; there were so many different species here that they didn’t stand out, thanks to the clothing covering their faces. They were actually pretty ordinary compared to some of the races they had seen here. Nobody seemed to care about them.

After a successful hunt for food they returned to their shelter, munching on the food with not much appetite. Their mood was just like the city; gloomy. The failure’s weight was so much. Too much. They couldn’t give up hope, and they weren’t going to, but it didn’t stop the failure from hurting.

They had also found – well, stolen – some medical supplies, and they could finally treat their wounds and Don’s leg better. It was a miracle their wounds hadn’t gotten infected during their stay in the prison, but they had carefully sheltered their wounds in different, clean fabrics they had gotten their hands on.

After some rest, food and painkillers they could think clearly again.

“I wanted to at least see him”, Michelangelo said with a small voice. “That was a _bad_ place.”

“We have to go back”, Raph growled, already draping the old clothing over his head.

“We will”, Don said, grabbing Raph’s arm to prevent him from getting up. “But all we have is three guns and three hurt turtles. We-”

“I’m not hurt”, Raph objected, and Don looked at him sharply, tightening his grip on him.

“We’re all better after the rest, yes, but we’re in no condition to fight. And my leg, Raph, you know how it almost caused us to-“

Mikey knew where this would go – so he cut them off.

“Maybe we just need something like a, huge tank so we can just bust right in! Donnie wouldn’t even have to walk, just operate it from the inside and _voilà!_ ” Mikey sounded exited, already imagining driving the tank.

“And how, exactly, could we get a tank?” Don asked, sounding calmer now, but looked at Mikey with an unamused face. They didn’t really have time for messing around and talking about tanks, but he appreciated that Mike had changed the subject. Don felt especially guilty; he couldn’t help wondering – could’ve they reached Leo sooner if his leg hadn’t slowed them down? And if he had stopped Raph and Rekeyke from fighting-

“Well… we could steal it…?” Michelangelo held onto the thought about the tank, absentmindedly tapping his chin with his finger.

“And you think this city has something like that?”

Mikey turned his head, listening as if he could just hear a tank going through the streets, but when no tanks appeared he turned back to Don, shrugging sheepishly.

Don drew the prison into the dust on the floor with the head of his cane, trying to think of the best solution. But he knew that the guards would be everywhere after their escape, and they really weren’t at their best. He ended up dropping the cane down. He had no idea what to do.

“We should help the other prisoners to escape as well”, Mikey said quietly, breaking the short silence.

Raph snorted. “As if we didn’t have enough trouble already-“

“The guards must be getting their commands from someone”, Don thought out loud. “Someone must be running the prison and the game. Could be more than one who’s behind it all, but still. If we could get to them, give the guards false commands…”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Raph asked, cracking his knuckles.

“We have no idea _who_ gives the commands. They could be in the prison, or somewhere completely else. My guess would be that somewhere else, because who’d want to stay at _that_ prison?”

“Someone who made it in the right place”, Raph growled.

“Anyways, even if they’re not staying at the prison, they’ve got to visit the prison at some point…”

There was a forest between the city and the prison, so they decided to head there to at least take a better look at the surroundings. Last time they had been there they hadn’t exactly had the time to really look around, running blindly in order to escape the guns blaring behind them.

They knew that their presence interested nobody, but they were still careful when they left the shelter. It was better to stay out of sight, just in case.

The rain didn’t make their moods any better. They were hopeful, eager to go back, but it was like the whole city was trying to take them down – it was dark and unnerving, everything was dull and grey. Like some kind of a dystopia.

They were almost out of the gloomy city when something grabbed Raphael’s wrist, and without a thought he whirled around to punch whoever had grabbed him. The person hidden behind a hood dodged easily, quickly lowering the hood.

“As quick to punch as always”, Cheea sneered, her four eyes blinking at Raph. “But still not fast enough.”

“You run away as soon as there’s trouble and appear again when the coast is clear”, Raphael growled. They hadn’t expected to run into Cheea again, and Raph had hoped it’d stay that way. He didn’t need her attitude right now.

“True, and I was planning on _continuing_ the running, but I noticed you in the crowd earlier and followed you. So tell me – why the hell are you _still_ here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Mikey asked and Cheea rolled her eyes.

“Of course. That brother of yours. Didn’t I say you were too soft?” Cheea sighed. “As if busting out hadn’t been risky enough – now you want to bust _in?_ ”

“We have to”, Don said calmly. “Cheea, do you-“

“No, I’m not going to help you”, Cheea said sharply, taking a step back. “I don’t owe you anything-“

“–expect your life”, Raph finished for her, but Don placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

“I’m not asking you to come back. I was just going to ask you if you knew anything about the organizers of the game, or the owner of the prison. Does the city-“

“You don’t know?” Cheea sounded genuinely surprised, placing her hands on her hips. Raph rolled his eyes, hating how Cheea always belittled their knowledge. Well, he hated _everything_ about her, so.

“It’s the narrator. He- well, _it_ , is behind all of that. He runs both the prison and the game, but how he gets the prisoners, that I’m not so sure about. I know that most of them are criminals, but some are not.”

“Are you?” Mikey asked, but Cheea only smirked at him. That told enough.

“It?” Don asked, bringing the conversation back to what was important.

“Yeah, he’s– it’s– this, um… machine”, Cheea said and couldn’t help laughing a little, even though her laugh had a hint of nervousness in it. “Pathetic looking little machine. It’s kind of funny, in a twisted way, of course, that such an innocent-looking thing is behind all that suffering.”

“Do you know where… _it_ usually is?”

“You’re thinking on going straight to the boss, huh?”

“That’s what we should’ve done in the first place”, Don said quietly. “We could already have gotten him out had we thought about it-“

Mikey’s hand on his shoulder made him stop and realize the self-blame wouldn’t help them any. Don gave Mike a small smile. He could feel guilty later.

“Well, I have no idea where it is and I really don’t even want to know”, Cheea shrugged, lifting the hood back over her head. “Good luck with that.”

Before she left, she looked at Raphael’s direction, meeting his hard glare. Even now, she still couldn’t bring herself to thank the turtle. The hood fell over her four eyes and she turned her back, disappearing back towards the city.

 

* * *

 

 

Leo slept more, now. The heavy breathing of the prisoner next to him didn’t make him anxious like before, his mind was actually taking some comfort in it. The prisoner banging his head had gone quiet at some point, but Leo couldn’t recall how much time had passed since then. Clinging to a new sound helped him to block away the voices.

But it wasn’t the wailing and other horrible noises he needed to block away, not anymore. He needed something to escape his own mind.

After a few weeks of barely sleeping at all he mostly slept now, but never felt like he’d slept. He didn’t dream, luckily, but even though he was getting some of his strength back from sleep, his mind was still exhausted. The numb feeling had started to go away, no matter how he tried to hold onto it, bringing up the hurt and the anger he had felt earlier.

He ate what little he was given, mostly because a part of him still couldn’t believe that they were gone. He couldn’t let himself just wither away if there was a possibility that they were still somewhere out there.

“They can’t be gone”, Leo said, his voice barely anything but a whisper. Despite the quietness of his voice the prisoner behind the wall seemed to hear him. It was the first time the prisoner thought the turtle was speaking to him, but really Leo had just talked out loud, not aiming his words at anyone.

“It can be hard to accept the truth”, he said, coughing a bit. The stranger coughed a lot when he spoke, and sometimes he had to take breaks, concentrating on just breathing. He seemed to have a lot of trouble with his lungs.

“The narrator lied. I… they couldn’t just…” Leo tried to reason things, torn whether to believe it or not. He couldn’t exist with this hurt inside of him. The blame made him shut his eyes tightly.

“It was my fault”, he continued. “I wasn’t there – I don’t even know what they did to them. I… I couldn’t save them, I wasn’t even there when…“

Leo didn’t know why he fought the tears. He wasn’t able to convenience himself that they weren’t gone. Because they _were._ So much time had already passed and they hadn’t managed to escape and get him out, so it meant they must’ve been locked up just as well as he was. And the narrator had said- They had been probably been tortured like the other prisoners here, and Leo would never know what happened to them, what they had to go through because of _him_.

“Maybe it’s better like this”, Leo whispered, hot tears burning his eyes. “If they’re really gone, they can’t hurt them anymore.”

It didn’t bring him much comfort. The failure and loss hurt worse than his wounds and the weeks of starving, but those were all things that hurt _him_. He could feel all the blame and regret, but if his brothers were really gone, they wouldn’t have to go through anything like this. He should be happy for them, but he couldn’t. They were gone. They were gone and the fact finally sunk in, breaking his willpower. He pressed his face against the floor to muffle his sobs.

There could be a way to get out of here if he was just patient, if he waited for the opportunity, if he gathered his strength– but what would it matter? Nothing. He should’ve done it earlier– he should’ve gotten out, even if it had been _impossible_ he should’ve done it. That was his job, that was what he was always supposed to do.

“I’m truly sorry”, the deep voice said from the other side of the wall, and Leo could tell he really was. Why he cared, Leo didn’t know, and couldn’t be bothered with trying to find out.

But Leo knew the other one must’ve been suffering as well, yet he was still trying to comfort him. It wasn’t working, no words or actions could soothe the loss. Despite everything, Leo turned his head towards the voice.

The turn of a lock nearby was audible, but Leo was already falling back to the numbness, unable to care about what was going around him. His eyes slid close – if he held his breath for long enough, if he let everything go he could see the lair, see master Splinter sipping at his tea with a warm expression, Don was fixing the toaster – how did it always break? If he turned his head he could see Raph wrestling Mikey for the remoter of the TV, wanting to see the news instead of the morning cartoons Mikey had chosen-

Something entered his cell, ripping Leo from the memory. For a moment he ached with loss, but blood was suddenly filling his every sense, he could smell it, feel it, almost taste it-

With a jolt he turned his head, trying to scoot away. It was hard with his arms tied and his body weak, and he couldn’t escape the flowing blood in time. It touched his cheek, greeting him with its warmness–

But Leo couldn’t concentrate on that. Before him lay a giant fish-like creature, the familiar heavy breathing leaving his mouth. As in, _leaving_ ; Leo could hear the life disappearing with every difficult breath, death creeping closer as more precious liquid was spilled on the floor.

The blood was coming from the cut on his throat, and his kind but suffering eyes were looking at the turtle. Leo stared back, shocked.

The fish opened his mouth, but only a bloody gurgle came out. Instead of moving away from the blood Leo moved closer, suddenly trembling – he wanted to reach forward, stop the bleeding, but his hands were tied–

“I’m so glad”, the machine sounded cheerful, but it couldn’t conceal the loathing in its words. The other turtles had escaped after all and caused quite the chaos in the prison. Someone needed to be responsible. “So glad you’ve been making friends. It’s great, isn’t it?”

A guard placed his leg on the top of the fish’s neck, making blood gush out faster. Leo watched in silent horror, unable to say anything- the fish twitched for a few seconds before going still.

And Leo couldn’t look away. No matter how much he wanted to turn, to curl away from the horrible sight, the stench of blood and death, he couldn’t- he hadn’t repaid the small acts of kindness he had received from the stranger- he hadn’t even asked for his name-

“I think you already know”, the machine’s voice was icy now. The guard stepped into the pool of blood, grabbing Leo by the tails of his mask, and without a warning, pressed his head against the floor, _rubbing_ his face in the blood. “But just to remind you; everyone you talk to, everyone you as much as look at _dies_. Because you _dared_ to blackmail _me_.”

And Leo knew – Leo knew it was true now, it was all his fault. And he couldn’t even feel blame or self-loathing – all he felt was the crushing weight of the realization. The only way his brothers could’ve been saved would’ve been by him never trying to save them. It was all on him.

When the guard released him he gasped for breath, trembling with horror when he tasted the blood on his lips. He was soaked in it; he couldn’t even open his eyes.

Not like he needed to – he would never speak to anyone again, he’d never even _look_ at anyone again.

The narrator left the body in his cell, leaving him soaked in the blood and guilt.

He had never thought he’d consider taking the coward’s way out, but at least that way he would take away the narrator’s satisfaction of watching him suffer further. It would take _everything_ away. Not a huge loss, since he didn’t really have anything anymore.

He gave his tongue a tentative bite, letting out a wet laugh. He missed them so much. He needed them – he just wanted to be with them, to tell them how sorry he was, how much he–

“ _I’m sorry_ ”, he choked against the blood pooling around him. “I’m sorry. _I’m sorry._ ”

But he knew that it didn’t matter how sorry he was – he didn’t even have the right to be with his brothers, not after what he had done to them.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sigh* I don't know. Hope you'll enjoy!

Even the night sky wasn’t dark enough to conceal the shape of the prison. It rose against the sky, huge and threatening. The darkest part of the grey city, and even the stars faced away from it. 

The three turtles had taken shelter in the woods, had gone over the plan many times, and were finally ready to go back. Well, not exactly ready – they were still hurt, but they couldn’t wait for any longer.

It took a few sharp, carefully thrown rocks to disable the cameras, and they knew they had to be fast before the malfunctioning would be noticed. Their injuries were still slowing them down, but they ignored their pains. It would all be better soon.

Tonight they’d all be free of the prison, one way or the other.

 

* * *

 

 

Leo hadn’t expected anyone to come to his cell anymore – his hands hadn’t been free in a long time, and the door of his cell rarely opened. He lay in the dark with his eyes closed; the dried blood on his face didn’t let him open them. At least he thought it wouldn’t, he hadn’t really even tried. He didn’t need eyes to know that the body of the other prisoner had been left in here to rot with him.

The sound of his cell opening wouldn’t have gotten a reaction out of him – but the harsh whispers did. He really tried to not react, but suddenly he ached at the familiarity, feeling a slight pinch of hope which he quickly stomped down before it could let him down again. He was just hearing things, like so many times before.

The touch on his cheek was as unexpected as it could’ve been, and Leo flinched away from the guard- he didn’t want to even be in the same room with them after what they did, but his head was forced to face him.

“Leo!”

His walls crumbled – he felt the hope, the confusion, things he couldn’t even name- the hand holding his head on place wasn’t the guard’s hand, how couldn’t he have noticed? It was Mikey holding his head, gently scrubbing the blood from his face. He struggled to open his eyes, but there was too much of the dried liquid- he wanted to see _so_ bad, wanted to scratch at his eyes to see-

“Calm down, calm down- we’re getting you out!”

Leo thrashed his hands against the lock around them despite the pain in his shoulder, desperately wanting to get free. He wanted them to let him touch them, to make sure they were real, they had to be real, he couldn’t take it if they weren’t–

Hands wrapped around him, strong, gentle, familiar- Leo moved, pressing himself against them, only to hit the cold floor.

There were no hands around him. He was alone.

 

* * *

 

 

They didn’t go for the prison blocks this time. There was a small building next to the A and B-blocks, and they could only hope that they were aiming for the right place.

Getting in was easy enough, the building wasn’t well guarded. There were no prisoners kept in here, the guards here weren’t patrolling, more like they were just having a break. They moved in the shadows of the rooms, taking their time scanning the building. No cameras, no extra guarding, nothing. As they sneaked further in only one door had a guard standing next to it, and they knew that that was where they needed to strike.

They still had the guns stolen from the prison, and during the time they had rested in the city Don had studied them, managing to figure out how they worked. Don had made a few adjustments, and now the guns weren’t so loud anymore. The guard went down, and before he could hit the floor Mikey had jumped behind him and caught him before his limp body could hit the floor, preventing his fall from making any noise. The corridor was otherwise empty, but the break-room full of guards was just behind the wall. They had to be quiet.

Don started working on opening the door; there was a panel next to it, needing a password in order to open. It didn’t take him long, and Raph dashed inside as soon as the door opened. His gun was raised as his eyes searched for someone to shoot. Don and Mikey dragged the unconscious guard inside the room, glancing up with confusion when there didn’t seem to be anyone else besides Raph. It was a small room with an empty cell in the corner and only one table, filled with papers.

 “ _Shit_ ”, Raph cursed, realizing to curse silently. “Where is the damn machine?!”

“Perhaps at the prison”, Don whispered, frowning as he moved closer to the table, going through the papers.

“Check it out, dudes! Our weapons!” Mikey had opened one of the cabinets on the end of the room, and was looking through all the weapons stored in there. “And other weapons too! Wow, this looks badass.”

Michelangelo turned towards his brothers with an axe in his hands, almost dropping it because of its weight. Raphael walked over to him, smacking him on the side of his head.

“Shh”, he hushed Mikey, helping him put the axe back. Mikey handed him his sais, and Raph he grinned as he whirled them in his hands. “Been missing you.”

“And I’ve been missing you”, Michelangelo spoke to his nunchakus, making sure to kiss both of them.

“What? Why would he…” Donatello was muttering something to himself, holding one of the papers in his hands. Raph and Mikey walked to him, Don’s bō in Mikey’s hands. “He changed the date? But that means-“

“Um, dudes”, Mikey cut him off, looking towards the door. “Someone’s coming.”

There wasn’t really anywhere they could hide, so they turned towards the door, ready to face whoever was coming in.

Expect that they couldn’t have been ready. Not for _Rekeyke_.

“Greetings”, the lizard said, holding an empty, grey can in his other hand. By the markings in the side of the can Don realized it was some kind of a sleeping-gas. “Glad to see you again.”

Raphael growled, rage coursing through his veins – had Rekeyke not betrayed them they could’ve gotten Leo out the last time. But instead they had wasted time dealing with the lizard’s betrayal.

“Let’s not do anything hasty”, Rekeyke continued, playing with the can in his claws. “You three step aside and let _me_ destroy the narrator, and _perhaps_ you’ll live a bit longer.”

“Dude, you- _mmfp_ ”, Mikey started, but was muffled by Don’s hand clasping over his mouth.

“Fine with us”, Don said, moving Mikey aside so that Rekeyke could walk in. As he dragged Mikey away he quickly grabbing something from the table, hiding it behind his back. “Raph already got a hit in- it fell behind the table and we were just about to-“

Rekeyke pushed him aside, already heading towards the table. The three turtles didn’t hesitate, storming out of the room, thanking the heavens that Rekeyke was an idiot after all.

 

* * *

 

 

“I’ve heard you haven’t been eating”, the narrator said with a neutral voice. “You should, though – the game’s almost here!”

It was time for the game? That meant he had been here for a month. Could’ve as well been an eternity.

The narrator kept talking, but Leo wasn’t listening. The game… he was really going there again? It didn’t make him feel anything out of the ordinary numbness. He was in no condition to fight, he’d just die on the arena. The thought gave him comfort he didn’t really feel like he deserved.

“Come on – say something. Do something”, the narrator pouted when Leo lay limply on the floor. He hadn’t moved much since they had killed the other prisoner in his cell – the smell of the slowly rotting body was starting to get stronger.

“Do I need to kill someone else to get a reaction out of you?”

Leo didn’t answer. He didn’t want any more blood on his hands, but didn’t find the strength to react.

“Huh… well, then. Want to hear something about the last moments of your brothers, instead?”

 _That_ received a reaction. Every muscle in his body seemed to tense. He was suddenly back on the arena, fighting the rock that had beaten Raphael – he could hear his words in his head again, how he had taunted him, how he had described the crack of Raph’s skull to him-

 _No_ , he wanted to scream, he didn’t want to hear. But he knew he had to, he had to know. He deserved to bear the pain of knowing what he had done.

The narrator hadn’t really known what the turtle’s family was like, so it had to be careful with what it said. It moved closer to the bars, its metallic body making a soft _cling_ when it touched the cell.

“The orange one – the youngest…” the narrator started, remembering he had been the first to enter the battle. “He was… scared.”

The narrator waited until continuing, humming when the turtle tensed even further at its words. It seemed to have said the right thing.

“Despite the fear he spoke… he couldn’t believe _you_ did that to them. Oh, the bitterness in their eyes when they realized that _you_ had caused their torment…”

Leo could feel the beginnings of dizziness – he didn’t want to hear it after all. He knew he was to be blamed, but that his brothers had blamed him as well? For a moment he didn’t want to believe it, he had wanted them to know that he had _tried_ \- tried to save them, tried to stay strong- but he had made the wrong decision, had only gotten them tortured and _executed_ -

Of course they would’ve blamed him. Leo felt sick with nausea, suddenly shaking. The knowledge that his brothers had died with bitterness towards him made him feel so nauseous- the smell of blood and rot he had been trying to ignore for so long suddenly hit him hard, making him curl away and breathe harshly through his mouth. His shoulder immediately responded to the slight movement, burning with pain- but the mental pain outdid the physical pain. He just wanted away from these thoughts, the pain, but there was nowhere to go. He had ran out of places to hide and the pain washed in with full force.

A strong hand grabbed the side of his head, turning him to face the ceiling. Leo still couldn’t open his eyes, but he knew the hand belonged to one of the guards. They all had gloves made from the same material. He hadn’t expected a hand to force his mouth open, so he bit back with surprise, only getting slapped for that. Something was forced into his mouth, harsh fabric that felt unpleasant against his dry mouth.

“Just something to prevent you from biting your tongue off”, the narrator said casually, like it was talking about the weather. “Some prisoners tend to do that before the game. And since you started showing signs of giving up by stopping eating, this is just a precaution…”

Leo moved his jaws, trying to get a bit more comfortable with the unpleasant feeling between his teeth. Not being able to breathe through his mouth forced him to drag air in through his nostrils, making him smell the blood and almost gag. He realized that with the fabric in his mouth he couldn’t even throw up.

“Besides, if you’re not feeling like eating, you won’t need that mouth for anything, really.”

Leo let a muffled whimper against the fabric, trying to get rid of the nausea the whole situation was causing. He should’ve bitten his tongue the first time he thought about it- should’ve just gotten it over with.

“Oh, one more thing”, it said, having already floated a bit further from the bars. “That fabric in your mouth – it’s the masks your brothers wore while they _begged_ me to kill them _faster_.”

For the first time since being locked into the cell Leo screamed – the voice was muffled but the scream went on for almost a minute, carrying all the anguish and despair in it, slowly fading into a single, broken sob.

 

* * *

 

 

White smoke was still lingering in the corridor when they stormed out of the room.

“The can in his hand. Rekeyke used some kind of a sleeping gas here”, Don said quickly, putting his hand over his mouth in order to breathe any of the smoke. “Well, these guards shouldn’t bother us.”

They could freely run through the building, running because they wanted to get to Leo as soon as possible, but also because Rekeyke would realize that the narrator hadn’t been in the room and would most likely come after them.

“How?” Don asked bitterly as they ran. “How was Rekeyke here _now?_ ” The only thing to be glad about was that his leg was allowing him to run faster now. Or maybe it was just the need to get to Leo that made him ignore the pain, he didn’t know.

“Doesn’t matter”, Raph growled, eyes fixated on the building they were running towards. They ran past the A-block, this time heading straight for the B.

They opened the door with the key they still had from their last visit, hiding behind the corner until the door was fully open so that they could peek in and see how many guards there were.

While they hid a group of guards stormed past them, seeming to be headed towards the A-block and the building the turtles had just escaped. As they ran past, they could hear their orders from their radios. ‘ _Guards needed at the office_.’

After they were gone they waited for a few moments, finally deciding that the way was clear. They quickly continued, still careful, but not careful enough; there were still guards left near the door, and their guns were immediately turned on the turtles.

“Crap”, Raph managed to say, and then they were shooting. They had to escape back outside, Mikey and Don running to the left side of the building, Raph to the right.

“No, we shouldn’t split up”, Don muttered as soon as he noticed Raph going the other way and almost turned around, but Mikey grabbed his wrist and dragged him with him. Mikey didn’t want to split up either, that was the last thing he wanted – but the guards were after them; they couldn’t go back yet. Besides, if they all kept just running forward they’d meet up behind the building.

They ran, knowing that the guards weren’t far behind – they were shouting, their lights were looking for them, and a gun was fired a few times. They managed to run behind the building, glad to see that Raph had made it there as well.

There was a ladder leading up, and it seemed like the best option to take. Don made Raph and Mikey climb first; he knew climbing would be difficult for him. But there was no time to mention it. The guards would be here any second.

Raph had almost reached the top when he heard the guards, glancing down. Don wasn’t even halfway up, and Raph growled. Without thinking he let go, yelling as he dropped down, knocking down two guards. He dodged down, punching the third in their jaw, and Mikey dropped down too. They were taking the guards down swiftly; they didn’t seem very experienced in melee combat. They were blindly shooting their guns, not even seeing properly in the dim light. Their mistake to follow them.

Don jumped down, too, easily knocking down guards with his bo. It didn’t take them long to take the guards down, and here they wouldn’t even need to hide the unconscious bodies. They would, hopefully, be far away from here when someone would finally find them – or when they’d be conscious again.

“Really missed my weapons”, Mikey sighed, gazing lovingly at hi nunchakus before placing them back onto his belt.

“Let’s head back”, Don said, receiving no protests.

 

* * *

 

 

“Again”, the narrator commanded, but the turtle didn’t react. “Do it again! _Scream!_ ”

The machine gave an order, and the guard next to him pressed a button. Being electrocuted only made Leo let out a short whimper, muffled further by the gag in his mouth. It didn’t even resemble a scream.

The narrator had been in front of his cell since the fabric had been placed in his mouth. And since then it had been nothing but torture; being kicked, whipped and taunted, and finally electrocuted. He wasn’t going to the game after all; the machine had said that it’d be a waste of time.

As Leonardo whimpered again it felt like it wasn’t even him making the sound anymore; his body reacted, his mind was just… there, slowly slipping, unable to withstand reality. He didn’t know how his body was still awake, still responding even slightly; there had to be a limit to what one could take, and he felt like his had been passed ages ago.  

“We’re not getting anywhere. I’m done with you”, the narrator huffed finally, turning towards his guard. “You know what to do.”

The guard grabbed him, and Leo’s mind finally snapped shut. His body reacted on its own, his survival instinct making one last attempt at saving him. Not like there was much to save, but an instinct was an instinct. He elbowed the guard, but the guard barely felt it, easily punching him into his side to cease his struggling. Leo was barely aware of what was happening, almost unconscious. His head was tugged back, his neck exposed. Something cold pressed against it.

“Be glad that you’re getting off easier than your brothers”, the narrator coldly said. “At least I had some fun with them. They screamed. Oh, did they scream.”

And Leo knew what was happening next.

This time it wasn’t only his body that reacted, the anger caused by the machine’s words giving him one last chance. The machine had dared to murder his brothers, and now he’d murder him too – this was the last pathetic attempt to not die in this miserable place. He kicked, his leg connecting with something, and someone cursed – but his leg was immediately grabbed and twisted, pain shooting through the whole limb. He cried against the fabric in his mouth, could feel how his head was pulled even further back, how the blade against his throat finally broke skin in one swift motion-

Liquid was pouring down his throat, soaking his chest with his blood, his mind overthrown with shock. His hands flinched against the restraints, trying to move to hold the wound, just to live even a moment longer. In the end he found it in himself to be merciful, to just let this happen, letting his struggling cease. There was nothing he could do, nothing he could do to stop the bleeding. There wasn’t even anything worth to hold on for.

 Leo gave up.

 

* * *

 

 

This time they were more careful when entering the block, but it seemed like all the guards there had ran after them earlier. The way was clear and they quickly continued, Raph and Mikey dashing towards the cells, but Donnie’s eyes caught the panel he had been searching for. As anxious as he was to dash after his brothers he grabbed the panel, pushing the key he had picked from the table form the office inside it.

Raph and Mikey had paused to look after them, fearing for a moment that someone had caught Don- but he was just standing by some panel, and frustration washed over Raph.

“Don! What’s the hold-up _this time?!_ ”

“You’ll see…” Don muttered, and to his surprise it was Mikey who grabbed his arm, not yanking him away from the panel, but still holding him firmly. As he glanced to his younger brother he could see the nervousness in his eyes; he wanted to go and find Leo, but didn’t want to leave anyone behind anymore.

“I’m opening the…” Don’s eyes moved back to the screen, his fingers working fast. And with a click, all the locks in the block opened.

Raphael was already running, eyes feverishly searching for signs of his brother. Like the last time, most of the prisoners were weak and battered, but Raph didn’t have the time to help. The locks were open, and some of the prisoners seemed to have noticed, weakly pushing the doors open. Raph almost ran into one of the opening doors, cursing heavily, but never stopping.

Mikey and Don weren’t far behind. They had to look out for the prisoners who had the strength to get out of their cells – they had to keep in mind that they could be dangerous too; after all, this was a prison. They could be thieves, murderers, who knew.  But they could also be wrongly captured, just like them – well, they _had_ stolen that ship, but had they been rightfully sent to the battle arena? The least they could do was to open the cells for the rest of them as well. Nobody deserved to be on that arena or rot in these cells.

None of the escaping prisoners seemed to pay them any attention, though; getting out of here was their highest priority. And just by glancing at them and their wounds they could tell why.

Raph had already passed over half of the cells, with no signs of their brother. Only weak, beaten prisoners– The anticipation of seeing Leo again drowned into the worry, and the adrenaline in his veins made his head spin. Raph blinked harshly to keep his vision clear. No sight of Leo, and there were only a few cells left.

Raph paused in front of the last cell, staring at the emptiness before him. He had looked into every cell, some of them empty, some of them empty _and_ bloody- he couldn’t have missed him, no way, so where–

“This is what I was afraid of”, Don sounded breathless as he stopped next to Raph, leaning against the wall. His leg was slowly starting to protest running. “The papers on the table- they were about the game, but the date had been changed-“

It took Raphael a few seconds to process what Don had said, but when he finally realized what Don was talking about he shook his head, grabbing Don by the shoulders.

“You- you mean that the game could’ve already begun?”

“I don’t know”, Don looked nervous, clearly trying to think. “They could’ve also just taken him somewhere else because of our last attempt of freeing him”, Don was trying to sound rational, but he was clearly under a lot of pressure, trying to think fast. “We… we need to check the other blocks-“

“He could be in the _game,_ Donnie!” Raphael shook his shoulders.

“I _know!_ But if he is- if he is…” Don’s dragged his hand over his face. “We have to- wait. Where’s Mikey?”

They both turned to look behind them, back to the long corridor. Mikey stood in front of one of the cells, hands tightly grasping the metal bars.

Raph ran back to him, dragging Don with him. He grabbed Mikey’s arm tightly. “Mikey, we can’t waste time, the game–“

The stench of blood hit him hard and Raph cringed, glancing at the cell Mikey was staring at. A huge carcass of a grey creature lay in the cell, obviously dead. Blood had filled the floor, almost spilling into the corridor. Raph froze.

Don looked as well, but had to put his hand over his mouth, feeling both disgusted and horrified by the smell. He didn’t know what his brothers were looking at, until–

Raph hauled the door open. The spell was broken and they were all on the move, stepping through the blood, disgust forgotten.

Behind the carcass lay Leo, only a bit of the blue of his bandana showing from behind the blood he was soaked in. His form was limp, making their fear almost take over–

Don kneeled next to him, shakily opening the lock around his wrists, and Raph carefully moved Leo so that they could see him better. Thousand emotions washed over them, fear the strongest. Leo was covered in blood and there was a cut on his throat- they could feel their hope fading, fear swallowing it whole. Raph pried the fabric from Leo’s mouth, feeling disgusted beyond words that the fabric had been made to look like their torn masks. Anger flashed over him as he threw the fabric away, growling loudly, desperately placing his hand over the cut on Leo’s throat, trying to stop the bleeding, but the blood – there was so much of it, there was no way that-

Shaky fingers felt for a pulse, and Don’s head drooped from the overwhelming relief when he found it. But he lifted his head immediately, feeling confused, until realizing that all the blood wasn’t Leo’s.

“Raph, move your hand”, Don said, and Raph shot him a panicked look.

“Don, he’s bleeding this much, he’s- he’s-“

“It’s not his blood”, Don quickly comforted him, grabbing Raph’s wrist and making him move it. Don was still afraid, but felt relieved to see that the cut wasn’t deep enough to bleed heavily. It was clearly fresh, still bleeding, but only slightly. But Don had no idea how much of the blood was actually Leo’s – he could still be in danger. His pulse was weaker than it should be.

“ _God_ , Leo…” Raph murmured, all his rage suddenly fading away. Leo hadn’t responded to the touch in any way, lying limp while Don’s hands searched him for other wounds, but he came to the conclusion that most of the blood he was covered in was from the body next to them. His shoulder looked bad and he had a lot of bruises, and… those marks were definitely from a whip. Don clenched his fists while Raph grabbed Leo to drag his upper body onto his lap, wrapping his arms tightly around his bloody and battered body.

“Leo…” Mikey’s voice was barely audible as he held Leo’s hand with shaky hands. He tried to wipe the blood from Leo’s face, but it was dry and didn’t come off easy.

Leo stirred, making them flinch in surprise and joy. Raph pulled away a bit so they could look at him. There was no saving Leo’s mask, so Raph removed it completely. The blood had soaked through, and they grimaced at how bloody Leo’s face was even without the bloody mask. Raph placed his hand on his cheek, trying to rub some of the blood away from the corner of his eye.

“Leo”, Don called for him as well, having to look away for a moment to keep his emotions in control, but quickly returning his gaze.

They couldn’t find words – they couldn’t imagine what had happened to Leo apart from the obvious bruises. Why was the rotting body here, why was he covered in all this blood– what was this other liquid? Don frowned as he noticed it, it had been poured over Leo, and Don took some on his finger. It was clear and had no smell, but felt thick.

“We’re getting you out, bro- just hang on”, Raph muttered, placing his hands under Leo so that he could lift him. But Leo moved again, making Raph halt in fear of having hurt him.

Leo was clearly trying to open his eyes, but the dried blood made it impossible. They didn’t have anything to wash the blood away with, and they didn’t even have the time for that. They had to leave.

Raph tried moving him again, but this time Leo winced in pain, and Raph glanced helplessly at Don.

“Just lift him. We can’t stay. Look out for his shoulder, though”, Don said, hating to cause Leo pain, but there was nothing they could do right now. He eyed Leo’s shoulder, the bandages around it had started to peel off, and Don could see the wound under them. It had healed very poorly.

As he looked at Leo he noticed his jaw moving, realizing by the taut muscles that he was biting down. Don was almost late with his reaction, leaning forward so hard he almost fell on top of Leo in his hurry. Don grabbed Leo’s jaw, but couldn’t force his mouth open. There was no time to think – he jabbed his fingers into Leo’s hurt shoulder, hating himself for it, but he knew that he’d hate himself more if he didn’t do this. Leo cried out when pain flared in his mutilated shoulder, allowing Don to force his fingers inside his mouth.

Raph and Mikey were shocked, and Raph sounded almost angry when he spoke.

“Don, what the-“

“Leo, don’t!” Don sounded desperate, the pain from hurting Leo lingering in his voice. He didn’t draw his fingers back even when Leo bit down on them. “It’s going to be fine now, please don’t…”

Raph and Mikey grew confused, until the realization slowly dawned on them.

“Was he going to-“, Raph didn’t even need to finish his question, they could tell by the broken look on Don’s face. Leo had been trying to bite his tongue. That explained why the fabric had been put into his mouth. Still didn’t explain why it had been made to look like their masks- those sick bastards-

“Mikey, you’ve still got some clean fabric, right?” Don asked, trying to keep his voice even. Leo wasn’t biting down very hard, perhaps he didn’t have strength – which was good, that meant that maybe he couldn’t have bitten himself badly enough to cause any damage. It still hurt, but it was a very, very small price to pay. Mikey numbly nodded, taking the fabric from his belt and handing it to Don. Donatello tore a piece out of it, pushing it into Leo’s mouth while removing his fingers. Leo whined pathetically against it, throwing his head to the side as soon as Don let go of his jaw.

“I’m sorry, Leo”, Don apologized quietly. They were all hurt to see the condition Leo was in. What had they done to him when he didn’t even seem to recognize them? Don glanced around the cell, seeing nothing but blood and the weird liquid. And… bottles? Don grabbed one of them. They contained the same liquid he had been unable to recognize before.

But there was no time to dwell on it; Don took the rest of the fabric Mikey had, carefully wrapping it around Leo’ neck to shield the wound there. He’d treat it better once they were out of here.

Raph was finally able to lift Leo up, startled by how much weight he had lost. Mikey led them out of the cell, and Raph almost walked into him when he halted as soon as he had started walking.  

“Mikey-“

“ _Know I’d find you here_ ”, a voice hissed. Don froze when he heard the voice, knowing all too well who it belonged to.

The bug-creature whose claws Rekeyke had freed during their last visit stood in front of them, hungrily staring them. But it also seemed a bit confused, tilting its head.

“Four now. No matter – I kill all!”

The bug leapt, and Mikey drew his gun. He hit the creature and it cried out, stumbling backwards. Raph was already running, keeping Leo tightly against his chest. Don had also taken his gun out, aiming for the bug’s legs, but the bug easily dodged by jumping up with the aid of its wings.

It jumped towards Don, easily kicking the gun out of his hands, slashing at him, but Don had already moved out of the way. Mikey shot again, causing the bug to shriek. It lunged towards Mikey, but Don jumped towards it, kicking it to the side. The bug was sent away from Mikey, but Don had to fall down on his injured leg since he had used his good one to kick, and he cried out when his leg gave up under him.

“Don!” Raph yelled, but Don immediately yelled back.

“Just run!”

Mikey was next to him, helping him up, but the bug was already back on its legs. Mikey shot, but this time the bug dodged, already close to them – it slashed, and Mikey cried out as the gun dropped from his grip. He drew his hand back, holding his bleeding wrist.

“Mikey!” Don pulled Mikey out of the claws way, trying to grab the gun he had dropped earlier. He reached it just in time, the claw only inches from his neck when he fired. He hit the bug right in the face, and with a long screech it backed away, hiding its face behind its claws.

“Let’s go!”

“Don’t need to tell me twice.” Mikey was on his feet before Don, retrieving his own gun before helping Don up, and they sprinted after Raph.

They didn’t need to run for long – Raph hadn’t gotten too far, and they could see why. Rekeyke stood in front of the door, his teeth bared.

“You lied”, the lizard growled, taking a step forward. “I’m starting to get tired of you.”

“Well, the feeling’s mutual”, Raph growled in turn, taking a step back. “Don’t ya dare to get on our way now, you freaking-“

Raph knew he couldn’t do anything while carrying Leo, but he didn’t need to – Mikey and Don had already moved in front of him, pointing their guns at Rekeyke.

“You know those don’t work on me”, Rekeyke said, and then he lunged. Both Mikey and Don shot, but he was right – the thick skin was barely affected, and the shots did nothing to slow the lizard down.

Rekeyke punched, but Mikey and Don dropped down. Mikey jumped while staying down, landing a kick against the lizard’s leg. As he went he also shot the lizard, and since he was this close, the gun was finally useful. Rekeyke hissed, swirling around, his giant tail connecting with Mikey’s plastron. The force was enough to send him against the closest cell, the bars clattering as his shell hit them.

“ _Damnit_ ”, Raph cursed under his breath. He hated to let go of Leo, but he had to help. He backed away from the fight, setting Leo down in one of the empty cells, out of sight. Raph was about to get up when something brushed against his arm, receiving his attention. Leonardo had reached out for him, but was too weak to even properly grab his arm.

“Leo”, Raph whispered, kneeling back next to him, and now Leonardo managed to wrap his fingers around his arm. Raph’s heart hammered against his chest, for so many times he had thought that they would be late, but Leo was reaching out for him, and it’d be okay-

“It’s going to be alright, bro. We’re getting out of here-“

Leonardo shook his head, his protesting voice muffled against the fabric in his mouth. Raphael lifted his hand to remove it, but stopped himself. He hadn’t forgotten what Leonardo had tried to do, and as bad as he felt about leaving Leo here, gagged and alone, he knew he had to. Mikey and Don needed him in the fight.

He moved to get up, but halted again. Leonardo had realized that he could remove the fabric himself, and with a shaky hand he pulled it out before Raphael managed to stop him.

“ _Don’t go_ ”, Leonardo managed to rasp out, his voice barely recognizable. He still couldn’t see, and was blindly trying to find Raph’s hand again. Raph grabbed his hand, even though he was supposed to be going already. But how could he leave Leo like this?

“I won’t”, Raph said, squeezing Leo’s fingers tightly. “It won’t take long. You won’t even notice I was gone.”

Leonardo didn’t answer, and for a moment Raphael thought he was unconscious again. But he was still holding his hand, even if only weakly.

“Gone”, Leo echoed brokenly after a moment, and Raph his hand was slipping away from Raph’s. Sudden panic flashed over him and his fingers flew to Leo’s neck, but he found the weak pulse, gritting his teeth. They had to get out of here, needed to treat Leo. He was still in danger. Looking at Leo’s weak form made his chest ache, but there was no time to feel broken about it now. He placed Leo’s hand down gently, hesitating, but ending up putting the fabric back into Leo’s mouth. There was no knowing what Leo would do if he woke up again before they were back, thinking that he was alone again-

Raphael returned to the corridor, drawing his gun. Rekeyke was looming over Mikey, who had fallen down on the floor. Don was about the press the trigger of his gun, but he hesitated, grabbing the gun with both hands, aiming carefully. Rekeyke had gills in the side of his neck, and Don aimed for them. He fired, and when his gills took a hit Rekeyke roared, his eyes burning when he changed his mind and turned towards Donatello instead.

“You little-“, Rekeyke drew his gun, aiming for Don. But something hit his hand, the gun flying from his grip.

“ _Gah!_ ” the lizard hissed, turning to look at Raph, who was responsible for making him lose his gun.

“I told you you’d better not get on our way”, Raph growled, hating that they had to waste time on Rekeyke. “Get away from my brothers!”

Rekeyke took a step backwards as Raph aimed his gun at him, holding his neck where Don had shot him. He growled, staring at Raph, taking a step back – and then he dashed forward, Raphael’s shots having no effect on him. He collided with Raph, sending him down with his whole weight, knocking the air out of the turtle’s lungs. He grabbed the fallen turtle, raising him in the air and turning back towards the other two.

“Where did you put the fourth one?” Rekeyke asked, growling, shaking Raphael. But Raph was still having trouble breathing again, drawing in a long breath before being able to speak. However, Reykeyke was impatient – he threw Raph towards Mikey who was just getting back up, and they both fell to the ground.

“Rekeyke, please”, Don said, lowering his gun. “Let’s all just escape and-“

Rekeyke’s tail was fast and unforgiving, smacking the gun from Don’s hands. Don grabbed his bō, but the tail struck again, pinning Don between it and the wall. The wooden weapon rolled out of Don’s reach.

“I’m never going to forgive you”, the lizard hissed, turning around so that his tail moved back behind him, freeing Don. But the freedom wasn’t long as he crouched down to be closer to the turtle, wrapping his claws around his throat.

“ _No!_ ” Both Raph and Mikey ran towards the lizard whose grip was only tightening around Don’s throat. Don tried to pry his hand away, but the lizard was much stronger.

“The gills”, Don managed to gasp out before the lizard completely cut off his airways. Raph and Mikey quickly glanced at each other, nodding. They jumped at the same time, Raph kicking the lizard into his side, Mikey jumping higher, aiming his kick for the gills. His leg almost connected, but Rekeyke ducked his head just in time. Mikey landed on his feet on the other side of the lizard, turning around to see that Raph’s kick hadn’t really done anything. Rekeyke only swatted Raphael away, but Mikey was determined to try again.

He jumped, and this time Rekeyke hadn’t been prepared; his leg connected with the gills, and Rekeyke cried out, letting go of Don. Raph grabbed the lizard by his tail, trying to drag him away from Mikey and Don.

“Don! You okay?” Mikey had kneeled next to Don who was gasping for air, and he nodded, but was still recovering. White dots were still fading from his vision, but he took Mikey’s hand and let him pull him back on his feet.

“Why won’t you stay _down!_ ” Rekeyke bellowed, turning around, leaning down to try to bite Raph. Raphael managed to dodge, punching the side of Rekeyke’s face.

Mikey had grabbed his gun once again and jumped on top of the lizard’s back, shooting Rekeyke in the back of his head. The lizard roared, doubling over when Raph sent a fast kick to his stomach, quickly rolling out of the way before Rekeyke could punch him. Don had grabbed the broom he was still carrying around since his bō had rolled away from him, hitting the lizard hard into his ankle.

Rekeyke fell down onto his knees with a cry, still trying to swipe at the turtles. Mikey still managed to stay on his back, pressing his gun against Rekeyke’s gills.

“Better give up, big guy”, Mikey said. For a moment Rekeyke only breathed heavily, the turtles waiting.

“You really think… you really think that you-“, as Rekeyke spoke he threw his head back and Mikey lost his balance, firing his gun, but the sudden movement made him miss the gills. Donnie jumped up, but the giant tail smacked him away once more. Rekeyke got back on his feet and reached behind his back for the the unbalanced turtle, managing to grab him and once again throwing him against one of the cells.

“Why does he only throw me”, Mikey groaned from the floor, holding his head. When he blinked the stars away from his vision he saw that Don was pinned under the lizard’s tail, and Raph was pressed against the floor, Rekeyke’s foot on top of his plastron.

“Where’s the fourth one”, Rekeyke repeated his earlier question, hissing at Raphael.

“Like I’d… ever…” Raph tried to speak, but Rekeyke’s foot only pressed harder down, causing Raph to growl in a mixture of pain and anger.

A quiet moan brought everyone’s attention, and their blood went cold. It was Leo, and the lizard had clearly realized that. Raph was kicked away, and Rekeyke turned towards the source of the sound.

But Mikey was on his feet again, determinedly dashing forward to stand between the neon lizard and the cell his brother was in. Rekeyke stood in his full weight, looming over Michelangelo, who couldn’t help swallowing nervously.

“Listen, dude, what if we just-“

Strong jaws snapped at him, Mikey dodging by throwing himself to the side, only to feel Rekeyke’s claws around him. He was lifted into the air, and this time he was smacked against the lizard’s raised knee, and he couldn’t help wishing he’d been thrown against the cell like before instead of this. At least then he had taken the blow with his shell, not his plastron.

He was dropped to the ground, and Rekeyke was ready to continue towards the cell Leo was in.   

“Finally”, Rekeyke said, looking down at the fourth turtle, but tilted his head. “I expected-“

Don had grabbed the lizard’s tail, trying to drag him away from the cell. Rekeyke only growled, smacking Donatello with his tail once again. With him out of the way Rekeyke bent down to grab the fourth turtle’s arm, dragging Leo out of the cell. The lizard lifted him up, shaking him.

“Is it even alive?” Rekeyke wondered, inspecting him with his gaze. He grabbed Leo’s face, lifting it up. He lifted his other hand, smacking the turtle hard, immediately gaining angry growls from the other turtles.

“Leave him the _fuck_ alone!” Raph bellowed, forcing himself up on his feet again. The other two did the same, anger on their faces as they slowly approached the lizard. Rekeyke didn’t seem threatened – he only looked from turtle to turtle, and as he turned his gaze back to Leo Raph jumped.

Rekeyke turned, smacking Raph with Leo’s limp body. Raph grunted at the impact, falling back to the floor, shocked that Rekeyke had used Leo’s broken body like that.

Mikey had jumped as well, but Rekeyke managed to grab him mid-air, slamming him down. Don had his broom in his hands, so close to hitting the lizard, but he turned, and Don halted. The stick was only inches away from hitting Leo, Rekeyke using him to protect himself. Don lowered the weapon, jumping out of the way when Rekeyke slashed at him with his claws.

Rekeyke scoffed, eyeing his enemies once again. Without even looking at Leo he grabbed his hurt shoulder, twisting it back, watching how the turtles struggled back to their feet, fueled by their anger.

Leo’s cry made all of them halt, and curiously Rekeyke turned his attention on him, twisting a bit more. The fabric between his teeth still muffled the sound, but it was audible enough to know how much it hurt.

“ _Stop it_ ”, Mikey pleaded weakly, the anger and hurt giving him enough energy to get up and send a harsh kick to the lizard’s ankle, which had already taken a blow before. The lizard’s leg immediately gave up on him, and the lizard growled, reaching for Mikey, but Mikey had already jumped out of the way. Out of Rekeyke’s way, but almost straight into the bug who had appeared into the corridor once more. They all halted, but just for a second – Raph and Don tried to reach Rekeyke, but the lizard was faster. He threw Leo, sending him on the floor right in front of the bug.

“Don’t know if it’s even awake, but feel free to finish it.”

The bug shrieked delightedly, rising its claws.

Both Raph and Don jumped, Raph’s fist connecting with the lizard’s jaw while Don smacked his broom against the side of his head. The jaw cracked, and so did the broom. The wooden weapon broke into tiny splinters, but the force of the two blows was enough. Rekeyke swayed, finally falling down onto his back.

The bug watched, hissing loudly when the lizard fell. They could see that it held its other eye closed; apparently they had hit it in the eye earlier. The bug stared quietly until it cackled, rubbing its claws together, creating a painful screech.

“Surrender”, it hissed, lowering its claw so that the tip was pressed against Leo’s throat.

“Don’t touch him”, Raph warned, about to take a step forward, but Don held him back.

“We surrender, dude”, Mikey said, not hesitating to let his gun fall from his hands. Don did the same, but Raph was still holding his gun.

“Raph…”

With a frustrated growl Raph dropped his gun, but before it could even hit the floor the bug raised its claw, ready to strike down at Leo. Don was still holding the short remains of his broom, and he hit Raph’s falling gun with it, sending it flying towards the bug.

“Mikey!” Don yelled, and Mikey had already raised his weapon, aiming at the flying gun and firing. The gun blew up right in front of the bugs face, and it let out a long, suffering screech, backing away until it hit the cell’s wall.

Mikey hurried to kneel next to Leo, who had turned his head away from the sound of the explosion. Michelangelo made sure that the exploding gun hadn’t hurt him, carefully lifting Leo up into a sitting position. Leo wasn’t able to hold himself up on his own, and didn’t even try to. Instead he lifted his hand to his mouth again, about to grab the fabric, but Don kneeled next to him and grabbed his wrist. They winced at the sound Leo made, how hurt and desperate he sounded when he was stopped from removing the fabric.

The need to just hold Leo and let him know that everything would be okay was overwhelming, but the bug was recovering and they had to move. Don and Mikey helped Leo into Raph’s arms again, hurriedly backing away from the bug’s blades. It was slashing around it, blinded by the explosion.

“No escape! NO ESCAPE!” the bug hissed, but the turtles were already on the move. The door was so close now, it even opened on its own for them- No, that wasn’t right-

The door opened, and in front of them was a floating machine. For a few seconds they all just stared at it, and the machine’s red light stared back.

“Is this-?” Michelangelo broke the silence, holding back a snicker. The machine was so small, not much bigger than a radio.

They could hear a low humming noise, and Don pushed Raph and Mikey to the side.

A laser shot from the machine’s red eye, barely missing Don. Even though it didn’t hit the turtle could feel the heat brushing past his skin.

Raph almost dropped Leo when Don pushed him, keeping his balance only barely. But he was glad that Don had pushed him – the laser would’ve hit him and Leo otherwise.

“I think we found _it_ ”, Raph grumbled, jumping to the side as the machine shot another laser. Moving while carrying Leo was already difficult – he didn’t know if he could keep dodging the attacks. The machine wasn’t that fast, loading his every attack for a few seconds, but fast enough.

“I should’ve known it was you who set the alarm!” the machine spoke. “I just don’t understand where my guards are…”

“Having a good night’s sleep, I’d guess”, Mikey said, yelping as he dodged a beam of the laser.

Don shot at the machine, but a protective barrier appeared around it. It laughed, its mechanical laughter echoing in the corridor.

“You think that I’d let myself get taken down that easily? There are guns everywhere around here. It’s only natural that I’ve protected myself against them!”

Don backed away, looking helplessly down at his gun. If guns didn’t work, then what-

Don cried out when something slashed his shell, and as he turned around he saw the bug, still blindly cutting the air. A pain shot through his leg as he tried to stumble away and he fell over, the bug’s claw coming down-

The machine’s laser hit the bug right into its chest, leaving only a smoking hole after it. The bug stood still for a few seconds, claws still raised, and then it fell down, lifeless.

They were all a bit stunned, even the machine, but eventually it scoffed. It had clearly been an accident.

“No matter”, the machine mumbled, and aimed at Don instead. Donatello rolled away, wincing when the laser left a hole in the floor, right where he had just been.

“Any-“, Raph ducked, “-ideas-“, jumped to the side, “-Don?” and finally slid behind the machine. “I don’t know for how much longer I can keep this up-“

“I’m thinking!” Don said, dodging a beam as well. The machine was starting to get annoyed, and was just shooting all over the place, hoping to hit at least one of the turtles.

“Stay still! Stay still!” the machine ordered, clearly frustrated.

“Ouch! It hurts even if it doesn’t hit!” Mikey yelped, holding his arm as he dodged another attack.

Don only barely avoided a beam, but as he rolled to the side he felt something under his arm, noticing that it was the small wooden piece, all that was left from the broom he had carried with him. Don grabbed it, staring at it before deciding to throw it towards Mikey.

“Mikey! Think fast!”

Mikey grabbed the stick, blinking down at it. He dodged a beam and shot a confused look towards Donatello.

“I can’t think that fast. What am I supposed to do with this?”

Don cried out when a beam brushed past his leg, focusing on rolling away until answering.

“Just… improvise!”

Mikey returned his gaze to the piece of wood in his hands, then looked at the machine. He jumped over a beam, noticing that the machine was shooting them from its eye.

Well, the eye had been the weak spot of his opponent in the game, so why not now as well?

Mikey slid under the machine, and jabbed the small stick right into the red eye.

Everything went silent, and then the hum grew loud, louder-

“Move it!” Don yelled, and Raph and Mikey dashed through the still open door. Don was short to follow, and they had barely stepped outside when the explosion sent them flying away from the building.

Raph did his best to shield Leo’s body as they fell to the ground, his shell ending up taking the collision with the ground. He pushed Leo on the ground on his shell, moving above him to shield Leo from the rubble that rained down on them.

When the dust was disappearing and the ringing in their ears fading they dared to get up, Mikey being the first. He dragged himself over to Don, grabbing his arm.

“You okay?”

Don winced but nodded, once again accepting Mikey’s help to get up. They turned towards Raph, gasping when they noticed that Raph had gone limp, half lying on the ground, half on top of Leo.

“Raph!” Mikey called out, hurrying to kneel next to him. Don lowered himself next to them as well, trying to check on both Raph and Leo at the same time.

“They’re both just unconscious”, Don said after a few seconds, but didn’t sound too relieved.  

“Raph! Wake up!” Michelangelo tried, shaking him, but Raph didn’t even stir. Fear washed over both of them. An alarm was blaring somewhere; they needed to leave, but they wouldn’t be able to carry both Raph and Leo.

“C’mon, Raph”, Mikey touched Raph’s cheek, trying to wake him up. “I promise I won’t annoy you for a month if you do!”

But Raph wasn’t moving, and they could already hear the shouts of the guards.

“What do we do?” Michelangelo asked, looking helplessly at Don. Donatello swallowed as he looked into Michelangelo’s wide, scared eyes.

“We do what Raph would do.”


	9. Chapter 9

“We’ll do what Raph would do?” Michelangelo repeated carefully, glancing down at his unconscious brother. Mikey worked his brain, tried to figure out what Raph would do, but all he could think about was punching- oh.

“Sorry, Raph.”

Don slapped Raph, his palm connecting hard with his cheek. Mikey winced at the sound it made.

“Wow, that was a real bitch slap, Don”, Mikey commented. “Have you been practicing?”

Don glanced dryly at him. There was no time for jokes. But the slap worked; Raph groaned, slowly opening his eyes, but immediately closing them.

“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty”, Mikey sing-songed. “This isn’t the best place for hundred years of sleep.”  

Raph only groaned again, trying to push Mikey away from him.

“Didn’t you just say you wouldn’t tease him for a month if he woke up?” Don asked, glancing over his shoulder towards the guards. It was still dark, so they should be out of sight. But if someone happened to shine their light on them, it’d be over.

“Did I?”

“We have to go. Raph, think you can get up?”

“Only if I have to”, Raph grumbled, trying to push himself up even though his eyes were still closed.

“Yeah, kinda”, Don answered him, helping him to get up. “Just take it easy. And be quiet. The guards are getting closer.”

“My head’s killing me”, Raph groaned quietly, holding his head with both hands. “The goddamn ringing’s not going away.”

“Come on. We’re almost out of here.”

They still had to walk through the prison area and through the forest, but they were already so close. Don turned towards Mikey, taking a quick look at his hurt wrist, glancing up at his eyes.

“Mikey, do you think you could carry Leo?”

“What? I can still–“, Raph piped in, but cut himself off. He felt dizzy, and realized that he probably wasn’t the best option for carrying Leo.

“Sure.”

After Leo was safely on Mikey’s arms they left. As soon as they started walking it was clear that Mikey was the only one who could’ve carried Leo; Raph was constantly swaying, holding his head and cursing under his breath. Don did his best supporting him, but ended up being the one who needed the support; his leg was still making things difficult. But together they managed to limp back towards the forest, leaving the blaring of the alarms behind them.

Had they taken just a few seconds longer they would’ve gotten caught; a bright light swept through the prison yard, missing them only barely. They felt relieved to be in the shadows of the forest, but they had to get further away.

When they finally reached the city it was raining again. They found the place they had used as a shelter before, and as soon as they were out of the rain and out of the sight the exhaustion took over.

Mikey fell on his knees, still holding Leo. Don helped him set the eldest down, and Raph had already fallen over, breathing heavily. Mikey lied down as well, but stayed close to Leo as Don took out a candle, lighting it up in order to start investigating Leo’s injuries. Medical supplies hadn’t been the only thing they had stolen; they hand blankets, some food and candles, as well.

“How bad is it, Don?” Mikey asked tiredly, doing his best to keep his eyes open.

“His shoulder doesn’t look too good”, Don answered. He was clearly just as tired, but taking care of Leo was much more important. Don unwrapped the bandages on Leo’s shoulder, and Mikey grimaced.

“Oh. That _really_ doesn’t look good.”

“Infected, most likely. He’s also got a fever.”

Don set to cleaning the wound, using the medical supplies they had stolen during their first visit to the city. He was glad that there were still supplies left – none of them was in the condition to go and get some. He was also glad that he had the habit of being prepared for everything; back when they had the supplies he had also stolen some antibiotics in case one of their wounds had gotten infected in the prison. Luckily they hadn’t, but since Leo’s had, he was lucky they had them.

But he hesitated – this wasn’t their planet, he didn’t know how Leo’s system would react to these antibiotics. And since Leo was in such a weak state he was kind of afraid to try – but was there really any other choice? He needed _something,_ and this was all they had right now.

“What’s wrong?” Mikey asked upon seeing Don’s face. Don sighed, shortly explaining his worries. He was still unsure, but ended up giving Leo the antibiotic.

“I just hope they don’t do more bad than good”, Don seemed defeated.

“I’m sure they’ll help”, Mikey tried comforting him, scooting a bit closer. “You’ve done so much, Donnie.”

Don smiled a bit, looking at Mikey. “You’re the one who blew the narrator up.”

“With your weapon”, Mikey pointed out. Don gave a small laugh.

“It took a tiny stick to defeat the big boss”, Don said and Mikey laughed as well.

“Ugh, shut up already”, Raph groaned. “Not helping this freaking headache...”

“Sorry, Raph”, Don apologized, lowering his voice. But his good mood faded as soon as he returned his gaze on Leo. Don’s hand hovered over Leo’s mouth, hesitating. Mikey noticed.

“Do you think that he’s still going to try to… you know…”

Upon hearing Mikey’s words Raph turned over, scooting closer as well. Both Mikey and Raph looked at Don, who seemed uncertain.

“I don’t know. We have to keep an eye on him.” Don removed the fabric – they couldn’t keep it there forever. He’d have to wake him up so that he could drink something. But he still hesitated – as long as Leo was unconscious he couldn’t try to hurt himself.

“I just… hate that it came to this”, Don whispered, setting the fabric away. He was too exhausted to make this kind of decisions.

“We’ll fix this”, Raph said, clenching his fists. “Damnit. That freaking machine got off too easy – I would’ve liked to-“

Leo stirred, and they all fell silent. Don hadn’t yet had the time to wash Leo’s face, so the dried blood was still preventing Leo from opening his eyes - but he was trying to, and as Don moved to get the water-bottles they had left here Leo sensed the movement, immediately pushing himself away from them.

But the sudden movement tore at his shoulder and he cried out weakly, and Mikey and Raph were immediately holding him, preventing him from moving any further. Their grip only caused him to trash harder, but they still didn’t have trouble keeping him in place; Leo was too weak.

“Watch his mouth, don’t let him-“

As soon a Don spoke Leo froze, but it only lasted for a few seconds. Leo was already struggling again.

“Leo! Calm down, you’re _safe_ now, calm down. Calm down.”

Leo moaned, clearly hurting himself as he struggled, despite Raph and Mikey doing their best to keep him from moving.

“Hold him still”, Don ordered, trying to speak gently despite the situation.

“I’m afraid I’ll hurt his shoulder”, Mikey said, pressing down on Leo’s plastron instead of his arm, helplessly looking at Leo. “Calm down, bro!”

Leo wasn’t calming down, but he was starting to run out of what little strength he had. His movements ceased and he breathed hard, looking more like a hurt animal than their brother with the dried blood all over his face and plastron.

“Leo, you’re safe. Let us help you”, Don spoke as he carefully reached for Leo, but stopped when Leo only flinched.

“Come on, Leo”, Raph spoke up, letting his grip on Leo loosen a bit. “It’s us. Let Donnie help you.”

Don could see the familiar movement of his jaw, and he hurried to reach for him, once again having to use force to keep Leo’s mouth open. Leo tried to move his head away, but Don was stronger than him.

“Please listen, Leo, you’re not there anymore – you don’t have to do this. _Please_ don’t do this”, Don sounded desperate, and that was how he felt as well. Leo fought against him for a short while, but it was three against one; it was a lost battle.

Leo’s struggling ceased once again, only his chest moving as he breathed heavily. But it was a checkmate; Leo couldn’t move, but neither could Don.

“Can I let go, or are you just going to try that again?” Don finally asked, only now realizing that his hands were shaking.

Seconds ticked by, but finally Leo nodded. Carefully Don removed his hands, still ready to act if Leo was going to try something. But Leo only swallowed, keeping still otherwise. Raph and Mikey dared to let go as well, but their worried looks stayed on Leo.

“Relax, Leo. You’re safe.”

Leo moved his head towards the voice, still fighting to open his eyes. Don noticed, and moved carefully as he spoke.

“Let me help you with that”, Don said gently, trusting Mikey and Raph to keep an eye on him as he turned his back to finally retrieve the bottles.

“I’m going to help you with your eyes, don’t be startled. This is just water; you’re not in any danger.”

Raph and Mikey carefully helped Leo up into a sitting position, and Leo hesitantly let them. They made sure to be very gentle with him, careful to not touch his injured shoulder. Moving was still painful for him, but Leo made no sound. He was tense and clearly nervous, but quiet.

Leo had prepared himself, but as the water ran down his face he was automatically reminded of blood- he panicked, but there was nowhere to go. He wanted to get away, but was too tired to fight.

“It’s just water”, Don reminded when Leo flinched away, carefully washing away the blood. He took a small break, letting Leo get used to the feeling, carefully continuing since he wasn’t resisting. The dry blood was surprisingly hard to get off, but eventually it started to fade. Leo had even relaxed a bit, but even though he was now free to open his eyes, he did nothing.

“You can open them now”, Don said, setting the bottle aside. He took one of the few rags they still had left, gently wiping the remaining water droplets away from Leo’s face.

Despite his words Leo wasn’t opening his eyes, and Mikey and Raph switched worried looks.

“Leo?”

“I”, Leo started eventually, and they almost missed his words; his voice was almost too broken and weak to be used. “I don’t know what to do if this isn’t real.”

Raph looked away, angry again. How _dare_ they do this to Leo, Raph really wished the narrator was still somewhere out there, just so that he could smash it down with his own two hands.

Mikey and Don were angry as well, but more sad than angry.

“This is real, Leo”, Don assured him. “You’ll see.”

They could sense how nervous Leo was, and they patiently waited. Finally Leo dared to open his eyes, doing it slowly; his eyes were clearly very sensitive. He had to blink many times before finally getting them open, and then he glanced around, dazed.

Leo raised his uninjured arm, unsure where to place it. But he didn’t have to choose; three hands were immediately grabbing it, holding him.

 

* * *

 

 

It was difficult to even think about sleep. They were all still very exhausted, and even though they had allowed themselves to finally feel some real relief they still felt paranoid. One of them would keep watch and would wake them up immediately if something happened, but it was still difficult. It felt like something could still take Leo away.

It hadn’t been easy to make him sleep – Leo had just stared at them, looking like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. And Don was a bit afraid he really wasn’t; his skin was very warm, he was still having a high fever which could easily mess with his head. And he had seemed so sure about this not being real – Don didn’t know for how long he had thought that way. Was it just the fever, or had he really thought so?

Leo was curled up in the corner, and even though they all wanted to be close to him it was clear that he needed space. He was still on the edge, and they didn’t know if they should approach him or let him approach them.

 “I’ll take the first watch”, Don finally said. Leo wasn’t the only one who needed rest.

“No, I can-“

“No, Raph, you need to rest. I’m going to have to wake you in a few hours anyways, since your head-“

“Fine”, Raph groaned. “Just don’t slap me again.”

Mikey laughed. “It was a perfect slap! Wish I had gotten it on video. Think you could re-enact that sometime?”

Raph sent daggers toward Mikey with his look, and Mikey hid from his glare under the blankets. Don shook his head at them, finally putting all the medical supplies away. He had bandaged Mikey’s wrist and checked on Raph’s injured eye, and finally his own leg. Despite everything he had put it through while he was still recovering it was healing nicely, much better than Leo’s shoulder was, at least.

Raph and Mikey were quickly out. He wasn’t surprised – it had been a long, physically and emotionally tasking, day. Sleep sounded great, but Don knew someone had to stay and keep watch. They couldn’t let their guard down in case the prison was searching for them – although they were probably having bigger worries right now. The owner had kind of… exploded.

“I’m sorry.”

Don had fallen deep into his thoughts, and when Leo spoke he almost dropped the bottle of water in his hands – he whirled around, but luckily Leo was still lying in the corner and not moving around. Still, he had thought that Leo was asleep – he had been supposed to keep an eye on Leo, in case he decided to…

“Leo, you should rest”, Don whispered, not wanting to wake up the other two. The candle burning in the corner sent long shadows over the small room, and Leo’s shadow seemed to be the longest.

“I didn’t mean to do this to you”, Leo whispered, pressing himself tighter against the corner. _“I’m sorry.”_

Don was immediately scooting closer, carefully placing his hand on Leo’s arm, trying to ignore the flinch it caused in Leo.

“Leo, you have nothing to be sorry about”, Don said gently.

_“Of course I do”,_ Leo almost hissed, and Don was taken aback. Leo moved his head to look at Don, and the hurt in his face made Don grip his arm tighter.

“I _killed_ you.”

Leo turned his face away, and he was trembling.

“And now we’re… we’re…”

Don could feel a lump forming in his throat.

“We’re dead.”

Don had expected Leo to say it, but he still couldn’t believe that Leo really thought so. What had _happened_ to him? What had they _made_ him believe?

“I- I shouldn’t be here-“, Leo was suddenly saying, trying to push himself up, but Don immediately pressed him back down. Leo wasn’t only trembling, he was shaking now, and Don rubbed Leo’s arm comfortably, hushing him.

“Leo, you’re not dead – you’re really here and you- you’re not dead. We’re not dead. We’re here.”

Leo only lifted his hand to shield himself with it. Don’s heart broke for him, he wanted to reach out to Leo, but didn’t know what to say or do. Don thought back, glancing at the bottle of liquid he had found from Leo’s cell and taken with him. There had been some of the same liquid on Leo as well, clearly it had been poured on him – but why? If not…

If not to create a mock execution. At this point Don didn’t know what else could’ve caused Leo to behave like this, and considering what kind of place they had escaped from, it wouldn’t be farfetched. It’d explain the cut on Leo’s throat, and the liquid had probably been poured on him to create the image of flowing blood. Leo had probably been feverish even then, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he had believed that… that his throat had really been slit open.

Don was silent. He knew how to treat wounds. Not minds.

 

* * *

 

 

Leo wasn’t sure about anything, anymore.

He was dead, wasn’t he?

He knew his throat had been slit open, remembered the blade against his throat- no, he had bitten through his tongue, hadn’t he? Could still taste the blood- no, everything was just a blur, he didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t.

Just a moment ago he had been dead. Now he wasn’t so sure.

And just to make sure that he really was he had bitten down – at least he had tried to, but someone had stopped him. Why couldn’t they choose – did they want him dead or not?

Was he dead or not?

Did he want to be dead or not?

He had bitten down. He had wanted to die.

At least it would’ve brought him some closure – to finally die instead of just linger. That’s what he had thought, but death seemed to be even more confusing. He had thought it would be final, not that he’d still be wondering if it had happened, even after it had.

Was he just in denial? Was he scared of dying? He hadn’t ever thought he was. How could he not accept the simplest aspect of life? Wasn’t he accepting it by trying to end it himself, or was he just escaping life itself?

And the voices, faces. His brothers. His dead brothers. Wasn’t that the last proof that he was dead? He was surprised to find himself with them. He didn’t deserve their comfort. Didn’t deserve their presence.

There was no reason to be afraid that this wasn’t real. Because it wasn’t.

There was a reason to be afraid that this _was_ real. Because if it was, he had been the one to almost throw it away.

If this was real, he had to reach out. He had lifted his hand.

And they had grabbed it, even if he didn’t understand _why._

 

* * *

 

 

Don realized he had forgotten to be quiet when both Mikey and Raph stirred, but it didn’t matter now. Carefully Don tried to lower Leo’s defensive arm, glad that he let him.

“Leo, you’ve been… lied to”, Don started carefully, unsure how to talk about this. He didn’t want to make Leo go through any unpleasant memories when he was in such a vulnerable state, but he also didn’t want him to cling onto these false beliefs. It was dangerous how badly Leo wanted to escape the reality that had been created inside his mind – they had already seen what he could accidently do in an attempt to escape. He needed to be brought back.

“Whatever you’ve been through… it’s over. Whatever you’ve been made to believe, it’s not true.” Don stared down at Leo’s arm, gently holding his hand. “And it might be a lot to take in, it might bring down some walls, but… we’re here for you. We’re here.”

Leo seemed to listen now, his breathing a bit calmer, but he still wasn’t back from the edge he was standing on.

Mikey moved closer and Leo tensed, but relaxed when Mikey carefully took his other hand, gently holding it. “You can feel this, right? It’s real and it’s not going anywhere.” Michelangelo’s tone was sad, but firm.

Leonardo looked like he wanted to say something against it, but wasn’t quite able to find the words.

“You saved us, Leo”, Raph said quietly, his arms crossed across his chest. “I don’t know the details, but we heard about what you did on the arena. You we’re stupid, but… you saved us.”

Leo moved his head to look at Raph, slowly lowering his gaze down onto his hands. Mikey was holding the other, and Don the other. He tried to say something, but couldn’t.

“It’s going to be alright, Leo”, Don said. “Take your time. But for now, it’s better to rest. Your fever is pretty high. You’ll feel better when it goes down.”

They draped the blanket over Leo, and this time he didn’t squish himself into the corner, letting his brothers stay close, but pulling the blanket over his head anyways. The fact that Leo had at least listened took off some of the weight on their shoulders, but they had learned to be wary of feeling too relieved.

“Well, now that you’re awake, Raph, how are you feeling?” Don turned to ask Raph, talking quietly again.

“The ringing’s not so bad anymore”, Raph muttered, and Don moved to check on him more profoundly.

Mikey lay down next to Leo, lifting the blanket to hide under the blankets with Leo. The light of the candle didn’t reach them there, but Mikey could indistinctly see Leo’s features. Mikey scooted a bit closer.

“I’m really glad you’re here, Leo”, Mikey whispered, snuggling closer to him.

 

* * *

 

 

Raph had ordered Don to sleep after he had checked on him, and now he was the only one up. He sat in the corner, holding the stolen gun in his hands. Just in case.

Even the short rest had helped, his head felt a bit clearer now. Everything still hurt, but at least he wasn’t as tired as before. He glanced at Mikey and Don, who had both pressed themselves tightly against Leo. It was a relieving sight – he finally had all of them back. Well, Leo wasn’t _completely_ back, but… they’d get there.

Raph knew better than to let his thoughts wander back to the prison and the narrator – he’d just become uncontrollably angry, and right now anger would only make him exhausted. He moved the gun in his hands, sighing.

The sound of rain helped him to keep his thoughts in check; at least the rain was familiar. It looked the same, sounded the same it always had. It was easy to get comforted by it – at least until it just started reminding him how far from home they were.

But they were together now, and the fact was much more comforting than the rain.

But the comfort was broken when distant shouting was audible. Raph was immediately on alert, moving closer to the wall that was closer to the street above them. People were running. Perhaps guards, perhaps other criminals; Raph didn’t know and he wouldn’t check unless absolutely necessary. The voices weren’t coming here, they went past them. It was better to keep quiet and out of sight.

Raph noticed movement in the corner of his eye turned his head to see Leo moving, probably woken up by the voices. Raph kneeled next to his sleeping brothers, carefully placing his hand on Leo’s arm.

“Don’t worry”, Raph said quietly, and Leo stilled again. Jeez, Don had been right; he had a high fever. His skin was way too warm.

Raph was about to move back to the corner where he had originally kept watch, but decided against it. Instead he sat down where he was, taking his hand back, but keeping it close to Leo.

As soon as he removed his hand Leo was searching for it, and Raph let him find and grab it. He was a bit surprised that Leo had immediately wanted his hand back, but held him tightly, letting him know he was there.

 

* * *

 

 

There wasn’t much left of the night; the visit to the prison had taken longer than expected, taking most of the night with it. There was no point in walking around in the daylight, so the day was spent resting, collecting their thoughts, gathering their strength. They didn’t get much out of Leo – his fewer had gone down, thankfully, but he slept a lot. It looked like the antibiotics had been good for him after all, but Leo was still pretty out of it, being conscious for only short amounts of time, but the rest was good for him.

During those shorts moments when he was awake Leo was either calm but confused, or agitated and completely lost. Don could only guess that he was living some of the memories from the past month, and even though it pained them to watch all they could do for Leo was to be there for him.

Leo hadn’t been the only one having a hard time believing that this was true. They all had subconsciously prepared themselves for yet another miserable day, and had to occasionally glance at Leo to remind themselves that Leo really was here. They had really gotten him back.

Even though the cellar was safe they were anxious to get away from here, away from the city – they just wanted to leave this place behind altogether. Their shelter was out of the sight, but it wouldn’t be safe forever. But they were all still weak, especially Leo. They’d have to wait until it was dark to even think about moving anywhere. And even then it’d be difficult and risky, and _painful._

The day had dragged by slowly, but the night came eventually. They were agreed on leaving the cellar, but Leo was in no condition to do anything on his own.  If they’d get in a fight they’d be in a lot of trouble. They’d be very, very sneaky. But how could they do that when Leo could barely stand on his own?

“I don’t know. Maybe we should wait”, Don said. “Leo is in no condition to be moved around.”

Raph clearly wanted to protest, but one glance at Leo was enough to silence him. Instead he just muttered under his breath, clearly not happy with the situation.

“I don’t want to stay here either. Leo could rest once we’d get into a ship, but… getting one is the hard part. And then I’d have to focus on operating it, I’m glad that the one we used before did almost everything automatically, but I doubt that we’ll get a ship that’ exactly the same…” Donatello sighed. Silence fell over them, surprisingly broken by Leo. They all turned towards him when he winced quietly. They had learned the hard way that they shouldn’t approach him too suddenly, so they carefully moved closer.

Leo had sat up on his own, something he hadn’t yet done. He was holding his shoulder, pain lingering on his face.

“Take it easy”, Don said, trying to guide Leo back down, but he wasn’t having it.

“No, I agree with you”, Leo said, his voice still weak. “We should get away from here.”

It was a pleasant surprise to hear him talk like… like he was his usual self again. Not paranoid or sulking, instead trying to sound like he had some authority in this. He was barely functioning so of course he didn’t, but it was nice to hear that he had the will to try.

“You’re in no condition to move.” Don was only pointing it out, but Leo tensed during his words. “Give it a little rest, and-“

Leo grabbed the wall for support, and Don didn’t know why he wasn’t stopping him. For a moment it looked like Leo could get up – but the hope died when Leo cried out and collapsed back down, his brothers immediately holding him, helping him to lean against the wall.

“You need time”, Don comforted him. “We all do. We still have food for another day – let’s see what the situation looks like then.”

Leo seemed very unhappy, breathing hard, fists clenched. But all he could do was to accept the fact that he was useless.

 

* * *

 

 

Leo had refused food – well, he had tried to eat, but his appetite was gone. They had been able to make him eat a little bit something, and at least Leo was drinking water. He was starting to get better, little by little. At first he was sulking again, clearly upset that his weak state was holding them back, but eventually he became more talkative. His voice was still raw and painful to use, but by talking it became steadier. Mostly he listened, and they told him what had happened in the prison, leaving some parts out. There was no need to make Leo worry – or to make him feel guilty. If they told him about all the close calls he’d surely find a way to blame himself for not being there. It was just the way Leo was, and right now it was best to not make him worry any more than he already was.

“You’ve done so much”, Leo was able to say after listening to his brothers. It was hard to read his tone – did he sound sad or proud?

“Wish we could’ve done more for you”, Mikey said quietly, but Leo only shook his head. They were lying down again, ready to get some sleep after finishing telling Leo about how they had gotten out of the prison. The candle had almost burned out, the light only a small flicker.

“You got me out”, Leo said tiredly, eyes already almost closed. “I’m… I’m no longer there.”

They were sure that Leo had fallen asleep, but suddenly he lifted his head, pushing himself up on his elbows. The other three tensed, ready to push Leo back in case he tried to get up again. They didn’t want him to hurt himself again.

“Could I… could I look out?”

Leo’s request was so quiet and the look on his face so hopeful that they couldn’t say no. Getting up was much easier when Raph and Mikey supported him, but Leo’s legs were weak and not used to walking after lying down for so long. It was difficult to get even to the door, but his brothers were patient. Don opened the door and checked the alley, but it was still dark outside, and the way seemed clear.

The air was fresh thanks to the constant rain – gentle droplets of water hit their faces as soon as they were out. And Leo didn’t even flinch – this was water. Only water. He was safe.

Don was trying to put something over his head, a cloth of some kind, but Leo only swatted his hand away. He wanted to feel the rain. He reached out, just because he could. He could still see the marks on his wrists from the lock that was around them for so long, but he barely noticed them now. He was able to breathe, he was out.

And most important of all, his brothers were here.

He hadn’t even noticed that he had started shivering until Don was ordering them back inside, and he let his brothers guide him back. He was glad, but also exhausted from something just as small as this. It was frustrating, he knew that recovering was slow, but he had a feeling that this time it would be even slower. He felt fine now, but knew that as soon as he’d let his guard down the demons from the prison would find him.

But for now, this was enough.

 

* * *

 

 

Sleep was welcomed, once again. They all felt a lot better now that Leo had at least been on his feet – the look on Leo’s face when he had stood in the rain was what they had all missed. Seeing him look like something else than just a ghost of what he had been. He was coming back. Slowly, but he was.

During their sleep they had been awoken by sirens and shouting – something was happening, but all they could do was to listen. They knew that the risk of staying here was starting to get too big.

“This was a nice little cellar”, Mikey said as they packed their things. “I’m almost going to miss it. Maybe. Probably not.”

“I’m definitely not”, Raph grumbled, giving the room a glare. He was more than ready to leave this place.

Leo was sitting against the wall, wanting to help them, but was having enough trouble staying up. He thought he had started to get better, but perhaps not yet.

They didn’t have much to carry, so they were finished quickly. Mikey and Raph were helping Leo up, Don using his bō-staff to help him walk. His leg was much better, but having something to support him helped a lot. After they had thrown the old clothes over their heads they left the cellar – hopefully for the last time.

It was late, but they could hear distant sirens, knowing that the search was on. And perhaps they weren’t the only ones they were searching for – other prisoners had escaped, too. They didn’t know the city so it took a bit of time to figure out where the space ships were kept, but eventually they found them. There were lots of guards patrolling there, of course there were; this was probably the only way out of the city, and they knew it.

“I could sneak in there, turn the thing on and pick you up”, Don whispered, a faraway look on his face as he planned. The only way inside the ships was to climb a ladder, and Leo was in no condition to do that, so he’d need to get the ship closer.  “But there are so many guards – and they would hear the engine heating up, they’d get inside before…”

“I’ll come with you, make sure nobody gets in”, Raph said. Don looked unsure.

“I don’t know if you could hold them off alone.”

“What? I’m much better now! We kicked ass back at the prison, and we were much worse then. And I didn’t even have my weapons – but now we’re back in action!”

Raph took out his sai, swirling them in his hands. Don was unsure; it was true that they were in a better shape now, but… Don realized that his gaze had gone to Leo, but he quickly looked away. It was a habit to turn to Leo when making plans, but he was in no shape to lead now. Leo was leaning against the crates they were hiding behind, holding his shoulder. Don wasn’t sure if he was even fully conscious at this point – the way here had taken a lot out of him. If he was conscious, he would’ve tried to take the lead by now. Don swallowed; he hated making crucial decisions.

“I guess it could work”, Don said finally. The sooner they’d get inside the ship, the sooner Leo could rest. The sooner they’d be on their way home. “Mikey, make sure to come out of hiding when I’m close so that I know where to come. But not any sooner than that, so that the guards don’t see you.”

“Got it. We’ll be right here”, Mikey said, glancing at Leo. “Just be quick. And careful.”

Don and Raph left, sneaking through the night’s shadows. Sneaking was much easier than running, and they reached the closest ship unnoticed. Don got them in easily enough, sitting behind the controls while Raph stood next to the door, weapons ready.

“I’m turning it on”, Don warned. The machines came to life with a low hum, the motor doing it with much more noise. They could see through the window how guards were already running closer. It was quickly clear that there had been more of them than they had thought, and Don glanced worriedly at Raph.

“Just get this thing moving!” Raph shouted, already kicking the first guard on the door. Don did as he was told, pressing the buttons he had used the last time, crossing his fingers that it’d work. The system was a bit different from the other ship they had used, probably an updated version. Too bad it didn’t come with a handbook. Well, not like there would be time to read one anyways.

The power was finally fully on, and Don closed the door, the guard that was about to come in almost losing his hand. Everything was supposed to be on and working now, but the ship wasn’t moving.

“What’s the hold-up?” Raph asked, leaning against the door when the guards tried to pry it open.

“I’m working on it”, Don said, going through the buttons again. Had he missed something?

Something heavy thumped against the door, sending Raph away from it. He cursed, getting back to his feet when the guards finally slid the door back open, opening fire. Raph jumped away, and Don had to hide behind his chair, wincing when the chair was put full of holes.

His attention was quickly taken away from the chair – Raph yelled, and when Don looked he could see that the guards had managed to grab him, and were now dragging him out the door despite his struggling. Raph was kicking and punching, but the guards weren’t letting go.

Don took out his bō, dashing after them. Two guards were easily sent to the ground with a heavy blow from the staff, and the next guard received a nasty hit on the back of his head. The guard holding Raph got also a taste of his weapon, and he cried out, letting go. With only one guard holding him Raph was able to punch him out cold, backing off back to the ship when something hit him in the shell, sending him down.

“Raph!” Don yelled, but couldn’t get to him; something was trying to hit him as well, and Don had to shield himself, then swipe at a guard, dodge another hit-

“Oh no”, Mikey whispered. He was still behind the crates, but could see Don and Raph fighting in front of the ship. And it looked like they needed help – badly. Mikey glanced at Leo, hurrying to push him down when he tried to look as well.

“Don’t move, Leo”, Mikey said, nervously glancing back towards the ship. He had to go. But that would mean leaving Leo here. He looked back at the eldest.

“If they need you, go”, Leo said before Mikey could even get his mouth open. “And get out of here, no matter what-“

“We’re not leaving you here”, Michelangelo cut him off, having a serious look in his eyes for once. “Just stay put. See you in a few minutes!”

Mikey jumped over the crates, quickly reaching the ship. The first few guards were taken by surprise, but the rest soon noticed him. But Mikey was fast, his nunchaku easily disarming the closest guards, breaking a few fingers in the process.

The sounds of fighting were clearly audible – but Leo needed to see as well. Holding his shoulder and wincing from the pain Leo dragged himself up, managing to look over the crates. His vision was suddenly blurry, he didn’t know who was winning and who wasn’t – he saw one of the guards press Don down, and then his legs gave up. He couldn’t help crying out when his hurt shoulder took his weight. He rolled onto his side to ease the pain, biting his lip, glancing around. He hadn’t been heard. Nobody was here.

Nobody. His brothers weren’t here. They were away again, and suddenly the crates felt like walls, the gunshots were loud in his head and he was drowning in blood again-

Someone stepped in front of him, and Leo stared blankly at the gun pointed at him.

Mikey had managed to drag Raph back to his feet, wincing at the marks on the back of his shell. They sure were lucky to have their shells. Once Raph was back on his feet he was moving again, barely having time to register that Mikey was there, hunting down the one who had dared to shoot him in the back.  

Don and Mikey fought back to back, and after Don kicked a guard away he glanced over his shoulder at Mikey.

“Did you leave Leo alone?!”

“He told me to come – and you _kind of_ needed me here!”

Don couldn’t say anything against that – it was true. They were barely holding their ground, where had all these guards come from?

The deck they were standing on shook; the ship was finally ready to go. Don glanced at the ladders, yelling at Raph, who was still fighting further away.

“Raph! Back to the ship!”

Don pushed Mikey towards the ladders, preventing the guards from coming too close while he climbed. But they were still able to shoot at him; Mikey escaped only barely, but when he was up, he took out the gun he still had, shooting down so that Don could climb as well.

Raph was still fighting, slowly making his way towards the ladders. Don was already behind the controls, and the ship was slowly rising. Raph grabbed the bottom of the ladders, and the ship left the deck.

The guards were still shouting and firing after them, but the ship moved quickly – and to Don’s pleasant surprise the controls were much smoother, the ship was very agile!

Which only meant that the guards would probably have ships just as agile. They had to be fast.

“There, he’s there- _no!_ ”

Mikey’s shout received Don’s attention immediately, and Don could feel dread washing over him even before he even knew what was going on.

“Mikey?” he asked, lowering the ship closer to the ground. Raph was still on the ladder, and he had seen what Mikey had seen. The ground was still far, but Raph jumped down.

“Get the _FUCK_ away from him!” Raph bellowed, throwing his sai while he jumped. He landed on the crates and rolled down to soften the contact, but he could still feel an unpleasant tingling in his legs. Perhaps he had jumped a bit too early.

But he was on his feet now, ignoring how numb the bottom of his feet felt, jumping down between Leo and the guard, only now noticing that his weapon had hit his mark. The guard was down.

Raph turned around, dropping to his knees, reaching for Leo, hesitating. Leonardo had pressed himself against the crates, holding his hands above his head, trying to look as small as he could. He was trembling and Raph felt a pinch in his chest – Leo had flinched at everything during these past days, but Raph would never get used to seeing him like this.

“Leo“, he called out, finally daring to touch Leo. He knew that anything sudden would only make the situation worse when Leo was like this, but they had to go. He wasn’t surprised when Leo only tried to get away from him, hiding his face even further, shaking under Raph’s hold.

“Hey, it’s just me. And we gotta go, bro”, Raph tried to speak as softly as he could, grabbing Leo’s hands to lower them from his face. Leo didn’t even look at him, only stared forward with an empty look. Perhaps caught in a memory –or something like that, Don would’ve known better. Once again he wished that the machine would be here, so that he could properly beat it down for causing all this-

Raph knew the guards were coming, so he wrapped his arms around Leo and hauled him up with him. As he did Leo suddenly gasped, weakly pushing at him, but Raph couldn’t afford paying him any attention. He had to get back to the ladders before the rest of the guards got here, the ship was loud above them, the ladders were right there, he-

Leo kicked his leg, sending him down just as someone fired their gun, missing him only because Leo had kicked him. He didn’t know if it had been intentional or not, but he’d have to thank him later. He got back up to continue dragging Leo with him, only to realize that since he had fallen out of the guns way it had instead hit Leo. The realization sunk in the same time as Leo went limb, and Raph’s mind went blank. No. _No!_

Something hit him in the back, but he barely cared, only held Leo even tighter – until he realized that he had been hit by the ladders. Raph dared to let go of Leo with his other hand, reaching for the ladder with numb fingers, feeling the ground disappear under him.

“Leo!” he shouted over the roar of the engine, wind and rain shaking the ladders. The rain was making his grip slippery, but Raph’s hold was strong enough to bruise Leo. Better that than dropping him. He could feel a growing wetness against his shoulder, and it wasn’t coming from the rain. Leo was bleeding, and Raph pressed his head against Leo’s face. Dammit. _Dammit._

The ladders were being pulled up and the guards were still shooting, but finally someone grabbed him, dragging him inside the ship and slamming the slightly broken door shut. As the wind and the rain disappeared it was suddenly too quiet. Raph was dazed. It only lasted for a few seconds, though – Raph was immediately struggling to get onto his knees, pressing his hand against the new wound on Leo’s shoulder. The already hurt shoulder had gotten hit – no matter Leo had gone limb so soon. The pain had probably been too much.

“Wha- what happened?” Michelangelo asked hastily, staring down at the slowly growing puddle of blood.

“Get something to help me stop the bleeding, Mikey”, Raph growled, and Mikey stumbled away. “Donnie!”

 “Kinda busy!” Don yelled back, and the ship shook as something hit it. “They’re still after us!”

“It’s Leo!” Raph yelled, already feeling the blood running past his fingers. “He, he got…”

Mikey was going through the ship’s cabinets until he found the emergency kit, hurrying back with it. Another hit shook the ship, this time making the ship tilt to the side. Raph was able to hold onto Leo, grunting when his shell hit the wall, but at least he shielded Leo from the blow. And now he was kind of glad that Leo was unconscious.

Expect that Leo wasn’t.

He was looking up with hazy eyes, grabbing Raph’s arm, holding onto it tightly. At least for a moment he did; Raph could feel his grip weakening.

“It’s fine, Leo, it’ll be fine”, Raph said, kind of wanting to tell Leo to just let go, to pass out. This would be easier on him if he was unconscious – but he was afraid to let him go, the wound was bleeding a lot and Leo was already weak-

“Here”, Mikey had scooted back to them, pushing gauze into Raph’s hands. Together they managed to wrap the wound, Leo staying conscious through the whole process, even though he had pressed his eyes shut, flinching every once in a while.

The next blow was a surprise, Raph and Mikey managed to grab Leo only barely, trying to shield him as the ship shook. A red light filled the room, a distress signal going off.

“They’re persistent”, they could hear Don muttering. He was furiously pressing buttons, and turned the red light off as well. “Shouldn’t have been anything important. I’ve got to check it out later, though...”

Raph and Mikey were unable to say anything, just holding onto Leo, waiting for the next blow. But it didn’t come, minutes passed, and nothing happened. And Don had stopped his constant muttering – that was a good sign.

Finally Don turned the autopilot on, turning around in his chair.

“How’s Leo-“, Don didn’t get to finish when he noticed the blood leading from the door to the others, and he was immediately by their side. The new bandaging on Leo’s shoulder told him enough, and he just glanced at Raph and Mikey before starting to go through the emergency kit Mikey had left on the floor. He found what he was looking for; painkillers, and they were lucky. These were the strong kind.

“These will help you rest, Leo”, Don said, pouring the pills onto his hand. Once Leo wouldn’t be in so much pain he’d take a look at the wound and see what he could do.

But when he offered the painkillers to Leo he looked almost afraid, shaking his head.

“No, don’t give me anything”, Leo said, breathing heavily as he leaned his head against the wall behind him. He was pale, his voice trembling as he spoke. “M-my head’s messed up enough.”

Don looked at him worriedly, still holding the pills in his hand. “They will make you feel better, the pain-“

“Please.” Leo lowered his head, pleading Don with his eyes. “I already though that…”

Don sighed, unable to force him. Well, of course he _could,_ but… He set the pills away.

“Tell me if you change your mind.”

They fell silent, trying to process the situation. Leo’s breathing was too fast; he was in a lot of pain, but still wasn’t asking for the pills. It was Raph who eventually broke the silence.

“You’re a fucking dumbass, Leo”, he gritted through his teeth, looking down. “We get you back and you’re doing stupid shit the moment you can…”

Don and Mikey were confused, but Leo hummed weakly, leaning his head back again.

“Can’t believe I missed that… attitude of yours…”

Raph tried to grin at Leo’s words, but it was difficult. The guilt was heavy.

“Stupid”, was all he could mumble.

“You’re stupid”, Leo smiled back tiredly.

“Hey, I’m not the one who’s being called stupid for once!” Mikey piped in, and seeing Leo smile felt like some kind of spell had been undone. This was real relief – they were all together and heading home.

“Keep that mouth running and that’ll change, Mikey”, Raph muttered.

“Well, I guess I’d better check the damage the ship took, now”, Don said, glancing at Leo one more time. “Are you sure you don’t want the pills?”

“I’ll… later”, Leo said, clearly having difficulties to even keep his eyes open. “Let me… have this.”

“Of course, Leo”, Don said, gently squeezing his hand. “Just remember that we’re here.”

Don looked at his brother for a moment, deciding to check the ship’s damage as quick as he could so that he could return to Leo’s side. They’d have to make Leo more comfortable, make him feel like he could take the painkillers so that he wouldn’t have to suffer so much. Donatello was about to leave, but looked unsure now. For some reason he felt like he’d regret it if he left now.

“Are we really heading home?” Mikey asked, looking at Don. “How far are we?”

“We are”, Don smiled at him. “I’m still not sure where _exactly_ we are, but… I’ll figure it out. Once I learn how to use this program...”

Leonardo said something, but his voice was too weak to be heard.

“Sorry, what was that, Leo?”

Worry washed over them – Leo could be just tired, but he had also lost quite a lot of blood. Someone would need to keep an eye on him.

“Look”, Leo managed to repeat after gathering his strength. They were confused, but followed Leo’s glassy gaze to the window he was looking at.

The galaxy was opening in front of them, shimmering in brilliant, vivid colors, taking their breath away. Thousands of stars blinked at them, fading into the never-ending sea of color and dark. Some of the celestial bodies were just born, some taking their last breaths, spreading out to light the darkness for the last time. For some it took thousands of years to fade, for some just a few blinks of an eye.

Leo blinked. He knew he couldn’t keep his eyes open for much longer. The colors blurred in his eyes, the colors of his brothers masks mixing with the galaxy, and he didn’t know where they ended and the galaxy began. But they were both here, right within his reach. All he had to do was to reach out.

He lifted his hand, but it fell down too quickly, all of his strength gone. But he didn’t feel bad. Home was out there. Amongst the blurred colors, seas of galaxies and planets. Their galaxy, their home. It was almost too incredible to be true – both the galaxy, his brothers. And how did he really know if this was real? He had dreamed about this so many times, being back together with them.  He couldn’t let himself wake up and lose all of this all over again. He’d rather fade here, in the middle of the stars, than in the hopeless cell.

Byt he wasn’t fading – he was just tired. So tired. But… the good kind of tired. The kind where you knew you were safe, allowed to just close your eyes and let go. He felt cold, but knew that soon one of his brothers would hold his hand, and they’d be warm. They’d be warm, even if he’d manage to slip before he felt them. But they were here, would be here, and Leo…

Just a few blinks of an eye – one for red, one for purple, one for orange. And finally it all mixed together, the last light before the dark.

No more escaping life, only life itself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for everyone who stayed until the end! I’m really sorry about the slow updates, but I’ve been busy with a lot of other stuff! I’m so surprised about all the nice reviews I’ve received, even if I kind of felt like I was just trying to get this story out of the way. So, a big thanks to everyone who read and reviewed, your words are highly appreciated! See you around when I finally get back to Derelict – or to a completely new story!


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